The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-09-18

to most men in his occupation, he con-
tinually sought the closest risks and
hazards, driven by an abnormal desire
to appear fearless. Men who had nc
conception of the meaning of the word
fear" sometimes stood apart, aghasi
at the mans daring, and admired him
Apparently without the slightest eX-
element, almost sullen of aspect, he
trailed desperate criminals to their rem
devious, engaged in combat against
mighty odds and waged such relentless
war upon desperadoes and outlaws
that his fame as an upholder of law
and order was spread far and wide.
Radcliff Conrad kept his secret we'll
Not a man in Siskiwah county had
ever seen him finch from his duty, and
tales were told in saloons and camps
of his intrepidity and recklessness-
, The sheriff's personal appearance
aided him. He was strongly and finely
formed. He possessed a blonde head of
classic mold, and g steel blue eye I'M
der good control. His inward struggles
kept him at a tension that gave him
reserve and somewhat preoccupied
manner and his every action seemed
the result of elaboration instead of
impulse. The giving away to impulse
was the thing he was trying to avoid.
He felt that some day his moral cour-
age would fail him, and he would stand
stripped to the gaze of his friends, the
coward that he knew himself to be. No
monkish ascetic ever Scourged his
heshy sins as Radcliff Conrad did his
one egregious failing. How well he
succeeded in triumphing over 1t, his
fame in Lava cOnyon, and, indeed, in
the mouths of men as far as the sage
brush grew to east and west attested.
There came one cruel day when the
-, v,,n1r- f17.ax hi IN 70
his tortured spirit with double force.
The town of Lava Canon was built on
a stretch of plain sloping down to a
river from sthe exit of a mountain
gulcb. Within this gulch was tangled
Wildness. Two miles back from the
town it converged to a fissure half a
mile deep, like a sword-cut cleaVinS
the hills. The sides, for its whole ex-
tent. were inaccessible except to the
rattlesnakes that made their dens
among the boulders. Within the edge
of the gulch, where the densely wooded
sides began to Straighten TO sleeper
angles. stood the white painted cottage
of Emmett Reed, the postmaster. and
leading dealer in hardware, cutlery,
arms and ammunition. Here, beside
the mountain stream and among the
mossgrown rocks, played the juvenile
Reeds-little more than rushes in size
watched over more or less carefully by
Boadicea, aged 90 eldest daughter of
the house.
To these confines late one afternoon
came Arizona Dan. worst man in the
county. after breaking half a thousand
dollars worth of mirrors and glassware
In the principal places of entertain
ment, and introducing sundry slugs of
lead into various citizens, to their
great bodily anguish. Dan was not
too drunk to entertain a wholesome
fear Of Rad Conrad, and it was his in
tention to conceal himself until dark
ness should lend him cover to escape.
On being apprised of these events the
sheriff Of the county, recognizing his
duty. prepared to effect Dams capture.
A brave man in his place who properly
estimated me value of a good citizen
life in COMPARISON with the vital spark
of a degenerate like Arizona Dan, as a
furtherance of the survival of the fit
test idea would have summoned posse
and by moral force of numbers would
have secured the surrender of the Of
fender without risk of bloodshed. Rad
cliff Conrad was not the man to do this.
He Stunned all appearance of lack of
courage, as ne desired in his heart to
shun the danger.
What arms did he have?" asked the
sheriff of some men who had seen Ari-
IONA Dams retreat to the gulch.
Nary q one" said a saloonkeeper
who had suffered from the fugitive's
fconoclasm. 'He left both his guns in
my place"
The sheriff unbuckled his revolver
end showed It across the counter.
"Keer that for me-" he said. I'll
go and get DAN