Saint Mary's beacon., 1897-10-14

Wisuiy arounu the room. then rea
lized, with q sigh Of relief, that h.
vas alone. except for the messenger
boy who sat doing in corner
with bis cap over his eyes. He tool
up the paper again and read it witf
set teeth
Sheriff Of Brenting county, Bren.
tingville:
Do not proceed further with exc.
cution of Prior. Sentence com.
muted. Documents sent off BY to-
nights mail registered. Answer
that ron understand this message.
JU1Tx DAT, Governor. -
Bowen walked up and down the
room with knitted 5row. He was
In no doubt as to what he would
do, eut he wanted to think over it..
The telegraph instrument called to
him, and he turned to it, giving
the answering click. The message
was to himself from the operator at
the capital, aud it told him he was
to forward the sheriff's telegram
without delay and report to the Of
flee at the capltal-a mans life de-
pended on it, the message ,:onclu-
ded. Bowen answered that the tel
egram to the sheriff would be i'm.
mediately sent.
Taking another telegraph blank,
he wrote
Sheriff of Brenting county, Bren
tingville :
Proceed with execution of Prior.
No reprieve will be sent. Reply if
you understand this message.
JOHN DAY, Governor.
1t is pity that it cannot be
written that Bowen felt some COM
FUNCTION at what he was doing.
We like to think that when a man
deliberately compits a crime he
should hesitate and pay enough de-
ference to the proprieties as TO feel
at least temporary regret, even if
he goes on with his crime after
ward. Bowen's thoughts were upon
the dead girl, not on the living
man. lie reused the doing tele-
graph messenger.
Here he sail. take this to the
Jail and find the sheriff. IL he is
not there 60 to his residence. II he
is asleep, wake him up. Tell him
this wants an answer. Give him a
blank. and when he has filled it up
bring it to me. Give the message
to no one else, mind
The boy said 'Yes, SIR and de-
parted into the night. He returned
so quickly that Bowen knew with
out asking that he had found the
sheriff at the Jail. The message to
the governor, written in a tremb-
ling hand by the sheriff, was:
i understand that the execution
is to take place. IL you should
change your mind, for Gods sake
telegraph as soon as possible. |
shall delay execution until last mo-
ment allowed by law
Bowen did not send that message
but another. He laughed aud then
checked himself in alarm, for his
laugh sounded strange. | wonder
if / am quite sane,' he said to him
self, Il doubt it.
The night wore slowly on. A
man representing press associa-
tion came in after 12 and sent a
long dispatch. Bowen telegraphed
it, taking the chances that the re-
ceiver would not communicate with
the sender of reprieve at the capi-
tai. He knew how mechanically
news of the greatest importance was
taken off the wire by men who have
automatically been doing that for
years. Anyhow all the copper and
/ zinc in the world could not get q
message into Brentingville except
through him until the day opera.
tor came on and then it would be
too lste.
The newspaper man, lingering,
asked IL there would be only one
telegrapher on hand after the exc.
cutisa.
i shall hare lot of stuff to gel q
over, and | want it rushed. Some
OF the papers may get our specials
| would have brought an operator
with me, bat we thought there wal
going to be reprieve, although th'
sheriff didn't think so,' he added
The day operator will DO here q
6, will return as soon as I've bar
q cup OF coffee, and we'll handle al