Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1897-04-10

to me-"
"But I told you'- she began.
To spare her second untruth inter
rupted her by saying, II trapped your
brother into acknowledging that you
have them"
"You must have misunderstood
him. she said calmly, ''or else he
didn't know that the arrangement was
changed"
Her steadiness rather shook my con-
viction, but I said, "You must give me
those letters or must search you" "
"You never wouldH' she cried, rising
and looking me in the face.
On impulse tried big bluff. I took
hold Of the lapel of her waist, intending
to undo one button. I let go in fright
when found there was no utton-only
an awful complication of hooks or some
other feminine method for keeping
things together-and 1 grew red and
trembled, thinking what might have
happened had I, by bad luck, made any
thing come undone. If Miss Cullen had
been noticing me, she would have seen
terribly scared man.
But she wasn't, luckily, for the mo-
ment my hand touched her, and before
she could realize that I snatched it
away, she collapsed on the rock and
burst into tears. "Oh, OIL" she sobbed
"I begged papa not to, but he insisted
they were safest with me. I'll give them
to you if you'll only 60 away and not"-
Her tears made her inarticulate, and,
without waiting for more, ran into
the hut, feeling as near like murderer
as guiltless man could.
Lord Rallies was swearing over his
trousers by this time and was offering
the cowboy and Hance money to recover
them. When they told him this was i'm
possible, he tried to get them to sell or
hire pair, but they didn't like the idea
of riding into camp minus those essen
tials any better than he did. While I
waited they settled the difficulty by
strapping a blanket round him, and, by
splitting it up the middle and using
plenty Of cord, they rugged him out aft
er fashion, but I think if he could
have seen himself he would have waited
till it was dark enough to creep into
camp unnoticed
Before long Miss Cullen called, and
when I went to her she handed me,
without a word, three letters. AS she
did so she crimsoned violently and look
ed down in her modification. was SO
sorry for her that, though moment be-
fore I had been judging her harshly, l
now couldn't help saying:
"Our positions have been so difficult,
Miss Cullen, that don think we either
of us are quite responsible for our ac-
tions."
She said nothing, and, after pause,
I continued:
II hope you'll think as leniently of
my conduct as you can, for l can't tell
you how grieved I am to have panied
you.
Cullen joined us at this point, and
knowing that every moment we remain
ed would be distressing to his sister l
said we would start up the trail. I
hadn't the heart to offer to help her
mount, and after Frederic has put her
up we fell into single file behind Hance,
Lord Rallies coming last.
AS soon as we were started l took q
look at the three letters. They were all
addressed to Theodore E. Camp, Esq,
Ash Forks, A. T., one of the directors
of the K. and A. and also of the Great
Southern For the first time things be-
gan to clear up to me. When the trail
broadened enough to permit it, I pushed
my mule up alongside of Cullen and
asked:
"The letters contain proxies for the
Z. and A. election next Friday?"
He nodded his head. 'The Missouri
Western and the Great Southern are
fighting for control" he explained,
"and we should have Won but for three
blocks of eastern stock that had prom
ised their proxies to the q. s. Rather
than lose the fight we arranged to learn
when those proxies were mailed-that
was what kept me behind-and then to
hold up the train that carried them. "
"Was it worth the risk?" asked
eff we had succeeded, yes. My father
had put more than was safe into Mis-
souri, Western and into California Cen
traI. The G. S. wants control to end the
traffic agreements, and that means bank
ruptcy to my father. 5"
nodded, seeing it all as clear as day
and hardly blaming the Cullens for
what they had done, for any one who
has had dealings with the G. S. is driv-
en- to pretty desperate methods to keep
from being crushed And when one is
fighting an antagonist that won't regard
the law, or rather one that, through
control of legislatures and judges, makes
the law to suit its needs, the temptation
is strong to use the same weapons one
self.
1.-The toughest part Of it is, Fred
went OH, that we thought we had the
whole thing hands down, and that was
what made my father go in so deel
Only the death of one of the NJ. W. dl-
rectors, who held s, 900 shares of K and
A., got US in this hole, for the G. S.
put up a relative to contest the will,
and SO delayed the obtaining Of letters
of administration, blocking his cXecu-
tors from giving a proxy. 1t was as
mean trick us ever was played.
1.-The q. S. is IL tough customer to
fight" 1 said, and asked, why didn't
you burn the lctters:" really wishing
they had done SO.
"We feared duplicate proxies might
get through in time and thought that
by keeping these we might cook up a
question as to which were legal, and
then by Injunction prevent the use of