Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-05-11


him the old surgeon and the young
lady. Dr. Jayne, it seems, had sudden
ly discontinued his attentions to both
the patient and the nurse
1t struck Stannard unpleasantly at
the time that no one of them looked
pleased at his coming, but men are OBJ
fuse. A woman would have appreciated
the improprety of interruption at
glance.
And even while they stood there,
hesitant, at the door the steward came
hurriedly to say that Merriweather was
conscious and had asked for his wife
and priest. The two veteran majors,
trooper and doctor, FASTENED at once to
the greater ward, and Hunter, smiling,
held forth long, thin. white hand.
''The ring / left with you would
slide of the biggest of these fingers
now, wouldn't it," he asked. Miss
dent of Butte, but fellow passenger
with us OH the night of the collision.
Before the sounding Of the retreat that
night and the boom of the sunset gun
Sergeant Merriweather $ soul had drift.
ed away over the dreary waste of snow
clad slopes and leaves Of prairie, but
not before he had made clean breast of
all his trials, temptations and downfall
His vain, empty headed, frivolous wife
was brought out from Butte, but proved
scant comfort to his dying hours. To
Father keefe and Stannard, Blake and
Ray, he told his piteous tale, Kittie
shifting, sobbing, wailing at intervals,
but ever intently listening. One extrav-
aganoe after another had swamped him.
He used the money Of the mems Ath
letic and Dramatic association, Of which
he was treasurer. He stole forage from
the stables and sold It to a dealer in
Butte to cover his shortage; but, that
not yielding enough, planned the rob-
berry of the magazine, which took place,
Croxford and Elzey assisting, one furi
ously stormy night. They worked the
old ordnance sergeant with liquor and
got his keys, took out the boxes Of car
tridges, revolvers, etc., and, 10, the
wagon of their confederates in Butte
failed to come. 1t was beaten back by
the storm. They then ran everything to
the stack nearest Merriweather stable
and cottage and hid the plumber under
meath. Dawn almost surprised them at
the task Luckily the old sergeant was
made too sick to go to his magazine for
two days They had arranged for the
wagon to come out the next night and
then to blow up the magazine and SO
destroy evidence of their guilt, but again
there was failure, and Merriweather
was at his wits end when he heard the
colonel say that stack must be moved
on the morrow. Then, rain or shine,
snow or sleet, the wagon had to come,
and then it was found, too late to
change the hour, that the swell recruit,
Hunter, was on the very post that guard
ed the stacks and stables and would be
there at the very time they needed to
act. So to robbery they were compelled
to add assault
The plumber was safely run off to
Butte and paid for at about e-fifth it's
/ cost and one-tenth its value in frontier
city. They got their money and felt
measurably safe so long as Hunter re-
manned in hospital, used up as a result
of the fearful Commissions he had reoeiv-
ed. But his wife had told them of her
encounter with and revelations to Hun
ter, and their fears of discovery were
such that Croxford and Elzey determin.
ed to desert. The news that Hunter was
ARE sted as having guilty knowledge OF
the whole affair was thunderbolt.
Now in self defense he would have to
produce even woman as witness and
that woman Merriweather 8 wife. Twas
Merriweather who babe her go at once
to Pawnee, whittier Croxford and Elzey
followed. The three men were to meet
and divide their spoils in q certain sa
loon in town. The first two demanded
more than their share. There was Il
quarrel, then murderous battle. They
took all he had and fed, but, with fatu
GUS laundering, had gone to Pawnee
buy her silence, and there all three were
Jailed. Hunter was an innocent man.
And when this was told to Mainwar
ing he beloved, "Then what in dasl
destination did Brady mean by hi
storyi" For Brady's story was praoti
cally this:
That he and Rawson occupied room
together over the one fine restaurant il
Pawnee, and one night they were hav
ing supper in one box when a party o
four railway hands came into that ad
joining, talking loudly about the en-
gineer Of 1888, old Jim Long, and thu
swell that engineered the hold up-hov
he had pretended to ba out there to Ell
list in the cavalry, how he had tried t.
ride with and get points from Long ant
had two or three of his gang on tina
very train all ready for business, bu
was scared off by the fact that Their
was carload of soldiers Then whel
the train robbery did take place the.
nabbed seven of the followers after
long chase, but never got the leaders "a
: all. Why, one of them was right ther
, at the fort this very day, enlisted 80 q
to divert suspicion, and he WAS keeping
his hand in by engineering other rob
berries. That magazine explosion the.
had read about was all his doing.
II Brady had not been added, h
: could have remembered that Hunter ha
8 enlisted before the train robbery too
place. But he posted back to Butte
r gave Mainwaring a wildly exaggerate
account of what he had heard, vowe
, he could brig the men with him neg
"trip. aud .NaiaWASiag.- ALREADY suspi