The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1900-12-21
CHAPTER XIV.

CHAPTER XIV.
A sleep, night had old John Fol-
som, and with the sun he was up
again and hurriedly dressing. Noise
leBs as he strove to be he was dis
covered for as he issued from his
room into the dim light of the upper
hall there stood Pappoose.
"Poor Jess has been awake an hour"
said she. "We've been trying to see
the troops through the glass. They
must have started before daybreak,
for there's nothing on the road to
Frayne."
at disappeared over the divide three
miles out" he answered vaguely, and
conscious that her clear eyes were
studying his face. 81 didn't sleep
well, either. We shall be having
news from Hal to-day, and the mail
rider comes down from Frayne."
She had thrown about her a long,
loose wrapper, and her lustrous hair
tumbled like a brown-black torrent
down over her shoulders and back.
6teadfastly the brown eyes followed
his every move.
at is an hour to breakfast time.
daddy dear; let me make you some
coffee before you go out"
"What? Who said was going out ?"
he asked, forcing a smile; then, more
gravely: "Ill be back in thirty min
utes, dear, but wait a moment l
cannot. | want to catch a man be-
fore he can possibly ride away"
He bent and kissed her hurriedly,
and went briskly down the stairs. In
the lower hall he suddenly struck n
parlor match that hared up and il
lumined the winding staircase to the
third story. Some thought as sudden
prompted her to glance aloft, just in
time to catch a glimpse of a woman's
face withdrawing swiftly over the
balcony rail. In her hatred of any
thing that savored of spying the girl
could have called aloud demand
10 know what Mrs. Fletcher wanted,
but strange things were in the wind,
rs she was learning, and something
whispered silence. Slowly she re-
turned to Jessie's side, and together
once more they searched with the
glasses the distant trail that, dis
Jinctly visible now in the slant of the
morning sun, twisted up the north
ward slopes on the winding way to
Frayne. Not a Whit of dust could
they see,
Meantime John Folsom strobe swift
ly down the well-known path to the
quartermaster's depot tumult of
suspicion and conjecture whirling in
his brain AS he walked he recalled
the uany hints and stories that had
come to his ears of Burleigh's ante
cedents elsewhere and his associa-
tions here. With all his reputation
for enterprise and wealth, there were
''shady" tales of gambling transac-
tions and sailed mines and watered
stocks that attached perhaps more
directly to the men with whom he
foregathered than to him. "a man
is known by the company he keeps,
said Folsom, and Burleigh's cronies,
until Folsom came 10 settle in Gate
City, had been almost exclusively
among the "sharps," gamblers and
their kindred, the projectors and pros
pectors ever preying on the unwary
on the outer wave of progress. With
much of him, for Burleigh was full of
business enterprises, had investments
everywhere, was lavish in invitation
and suggestion, was profuse in offers
of aid of any kind If aid were want
ed He had gone so far as to say that
he knew from experience how with his
wealth tied up in real estate and
mines a man often found himself in
need of few thousand in spot cash,
and as Folsom was buying and build
ing, il at any time he found himself
a little short and needed ten or TWEEN
~ thousand say, why, Burleigh's
bank account was at his service, etc.
1t all sounded large and liberal, and
Folsom, whose lot for years had been
cast with a somewhat threadbare ar
ray OF people, content with little,
impecunious but honest. wondered
what manner of martial man this
was. Burleigh did not loudly boast
of his wealth and influence, but i'm
pressed in some pondcrous way his
hearers with a sense of both. Yet
ever since that run to Warriors Gap
a change had come over Rureigh. lie
talked mere Of mines and money and
showed less, and now only yesterday
when the old mans heart had mel
lowed to him because he had first held
him wholly to blame for Deans ar
rest and later found him pleading for
BE "nurg fellows release, strange