Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1900-12-13
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| the back garden when you found DR.
James. How do you know they weren't
watching you? How do you know yor
We're not followed here?"
| But if that is So" I can give you q
theory that fits in With that, but il
might not be pleasant hearing for YOU
go on" I said.
You see, you told me that the man
you tried to arrest made a great point
of letting Mr. Travers know that he
had come for his revenge. Now, ii
they found him through your coming
here, and have left orders that no one
was to NEEDLE with your friend except
himself. He might have been away
after your father. and if he'd got on
his trail he wouldn't leave it until he
had run him down. That's one way
of looking at it, though think it's very
likely that they haven't found Mr.. Ire
manye yet. and that is why they
haven't meddled with you. You see,
they are giving you line, in the hopes
that you and your father will come to-
gether again."
''Why should they harm me?" I said.
Give never done hurt to any man, so
far as I know
Maybe not; but we read sir, that
the sins of the father are visited upon
the children. / can't help thinking
that, however this trouble started, it
began, so to speak. as a private con-
CEN; but now they've turned it into a
political company with power to add
to their number, and with the extra
help they get in this way they have a
better chance of finding out the where
abouts of the men they want to settle
up old scores WITH
All this, as the detective had sug-
gested, was not pleasant hearing for
me, for, if he We're correct in his sur
misses, and 1 We're ever attacked, it
would be proof that my father had
persisted, and that, being no longer of
any use as a dccoy-duck, his sins were
to be visited upon me.
Can you give me any idea,'', asked,
"as to what the expression Ragged
Thirteen means?"
"You don't play cribbage?" he said.
"No, I don't"
that the five cards you had shown me
score thirteen points, and the hand is
called the Ragged Thirteen, because,
suppose, they total up in such scratch
way. You see, there's fifteen two
fifteen four, fifteen six, fifteen eight,
two's ten, and the run of three thirteen.
You don't, of course, understand me,
but perhaps you will agree with me
that this trouble seems to have origi-
mated in a quarrel over cards."
By the doctors advice we sent Mr..
Travers to health resort in the south
of Scotland, and there he was tended
night and day by mis- nephew and a
trusty man, but little hopes We're en-
tertained that he would ever recover
the power of speech.
I did not give up my University
career, and during the two years that
elapsed before I took my degree !
heard from Anguish at intervals, but
all his efforts to throw light upon the
mystery of the Ragged Thirteen were
apparently as unvailing as mine had
been.
I had left with him the parcel con-
tanning the cards, for they We're dan
gerous articles to be in my possession,
and when my college career ended
I went to Scotland to see Mr.. Travers,
and I was pleased to find that, al
though he was only the shadow of the
man he had once been, he yet knew
me, through his voice had never re-
turned to him and his right hand was
powerless. Hugh Travers was with
him, and it and it was certain that as
long as the poor gentleman lived he
would have at least one faithful heart
to share his sorrows-one kind friend
to anticipate his wants.
had not spent quarter of my allow
ance, so that if ever an occasion arose
when money might be needed, money
would be Forthcoming.
The time had now arrived when
might with advantage follow the adj
vice contained in my fathers letter
and go abroad, so from Scotland I
went straight to Paris, and there for
some months in it's salons, and under
the guidance of some of the ablest
professors, I gave full play to my
artistic bent.
Then wandered from one capital to
another until at last I found myself
in Rome, and there I, purposed to tarry
for some time, that might avail my
self of examples of the best style and
study under the best teachers; and in
this congenial work. learning sanity
legends and drinking in all the beauties
of the exquisite finish andr colour Of
the old masters, the memory of the
scenes through which had passed,
terrible as they had been, began to
grow fainter, and the wave of youth
full impetuosity had left me stranded,
and, sweeping back, had carried with
it the zeal Of my younger days.
I made Rome my head quarters for
more than two years. visiting other
cities of interest during the sickly sea-
son, and SO enamoured did I become
tof Italian art that was like to have
srent the rest of my life in the Sunny
South. But Fate had ordained it 9TH
,eEMise.
i had heard a great deal Of the doings
.bf Tburzi and BAgini and other eel
ebrated bandits, and as have limited,
When speaking of my father, I was
pnGswith him, in the hafds Of gang;
5but 'r"certainly had no desire to have
any rurther dealings with those heavy
handed blaSkmailers.
A'esfeS evening I had been for long
ride, and was returning, walking my
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