Williston graphic. (Williston, Williams County, N.D.) 1895-1919, 1899-08-24

with coarse weeds and low shrubbery. Here
my guide halted, and, turning about with
chuckle, said:
Considering they know nothing Of yer go
ing, We be safe enough here"
what the devil" l began, but he in
terrupted me.
IT'S plain enough, my friend. know
We now, an thought did at first. Did We
mark me draw the light from We at the table
and shut the windows?"
"How did you know me?"
care We not the man who bearded Clin-
ton? Who would not know We after the
days rumpus With searchin's an descrip-
tions! Are there two O yer shadow on the
island! Is not yer name Thorndyke? IT'S
lucky ye fell afoul O Nick Stryker instead O.
others"
"By the Mighty! Are you Nick
Stryker?" I asked, light bursting on me.
"Nick Stryker is my name," he answered.
81 thought you said Nat Burns was"
"Who ever saw Nat Burns?" he broke in.
"No one. He's always away. Come, now,
I've little to tell. What brought We to the
Dove?"
''To find one calling himself Rex" be-
gan, but he stopped me by an exclamation.
REX! an We asked for man O the name
g King? know none such, but Rex-why,
he it was that laid out the tory and saved
yer neck. An We knew him not! Well, on
my soul, tits scarce wonder!"
SIS it possible? No more than brother
unborn would have known him. Is Low
ney dead?" asked
"Ay, he's dead, an We ha' the credit O it.
Did We not hear party putting after We to
the north? We have no time to palaver.
Stay here until guide the Quaker hither;
he's maxim blind fools O. an officer an three
| men over the body o the tory, but his risk
is great. tell We that Rex is sore beset HIM
self, an l would hang higher than Hannah
| were my position known. Yc each need the
other, for tits beyond me now to more than
help We out of the muss we have just got
| ten in"
''What is the mans real namc?" l asked
as he turned to leave me.
"Ames" was the short answer as he
made off, and in the small light of the moon
that was now close to its setting marked
his figure grow less and less until the shad-
ows swallowed it.
Now saw where had made mistake in
not closely following directions and asking
for Rex in the first place. And equally
stupid had | been in determining that Nick
Stryker was openly known by his name.
| When inquired for King" it had never en-
| tered my head that Rex could be aught but
| the brother of Gertrude, and it now came to
| me that mayhap Clinton was inside the
| truth when he said that youth had persisted
in the flames. How, then, could the poor
| girl have Jared since she left me? Yet her
| brother had escaped, according to Mrs.
| Badely, and twas possible the girl had
| known where to join him. Either Clinton
| had lied or his mistress had been deceived,
and twas fair muddle to clear. Stryker
| had known ME through reputation and de-
scription, and if my act had become cele-
| brated so might have hers, and determined
| to ask him if he knew aught of the girl for
! whom l had now more than passing inter
est.
However, the matter was not to be cleared
| by thinking, and as just now | had need of
| my brains in my own behalf, put it aside
and came home, as charity should.
Where was | to pass the coming night L?
Where was l to procure bread for the NOR
row? would not fast again, though it
| came to entering house and demanding
| food at pistols point. What was the end
OF it all to be? Even now l was held pris-
| oner by quaking bog, and had put myself
INTO the power or a man VINO, IN my mlnd,
was no moro negro than was Rex or Ames
an aged Quaker.
Twas foolishly weak in me, but as one
hour went far into another and nothing
CHANGED, took blue turn, thinking of
home and my mother and my sister, and
their worry and wonderment at my long alb
sence, finally getting myself into a mood
| that was made up of universal doubts, and,
were it not that had a sense of shame left,
| fairly think l might have whimpered like
| a sick child.
Indeed, there was nothing in my surround.
ings to prick my pluck. When the moon set,
a darkness almost like that of the night be-
| fore came down on me. The dew was like
rain on all about, and not so much as a
! stone, wet or dry, was there to rest upon.
The unusual fast, the lack of sleep, the un-
| ceasing danger and present inactivity made
| me look at matters with a jaundiced eye.
The night voices of the swamp were we'll
nigh deafening, and | was like to lose my
head betwixt the vociferous bellowings of
| the frogs and the strain under which my
nerves had so long been strung, when, as
| though they had come from below, the fig
| ures of Anps and Strvl,er wara befora me-