Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-02-07
a .whyr asked the landlady.

"'why?' asked the landlady.
"'I sale good morning to an old messy
who was walking around here as
II he owned the place and he CAV me
the cold eye. I'll give you my card to
take to him II he requires In formali-
ties before answering an ordinary MORN
ing hail. answered my brother, who was
too hot to even refer to the old man prop
erly:
You must be mistaken returned the
landlady, there is no men about the
place but yourself and my hired a
He hasn't been in the house for two
hours s--.s
my brother had seen the hired man
the night before and had catalogued
him as one who was a good person not
to know. The old man he had seen re-
sembled the employee in no particular,
ana the conclusion my brother vas
forced to was that the woman was not
telling the truth. In the absence Of any
reason for her lying he was worried a
little over it. but decided that she was
just misstating facts to keep in practice,
so he said. to dismiss the subject:
Well ! must have dreamed I saw
this ray haired old man with Whiskers
like aNhino bunch grass float through
here. ! often dream when I'm waiting
for breakfast
What did he do? What did he look
HnCs OSAAldlJACu Iue ~ WOIIldU, eVlQ6ulAy
greatly ag:tated, for she dropped my
brothers. breakfast in a heap on the. ta-
BILE n CAV no heed to the wreck.
Calm yourself, madam replied my
brother. soothfngly. Calm yourself and
I'll tell YOU
"He closely described the man and
his actions, and the woman. a hopeless
ruin as to nerves, returned to the. kitch-
en-. -U
THAT night about IL o'clock my broth
er was awakened by loud calls from
without his window, which was open in
order that the air might circulate. The
room was filled with smoke. MY broth
er hastily climbed into his trousers, and,
Wrapping his arms around the remain
DER OF his clothes, started into the hall
way. Ihere was a rush of hot smoke,
like a breath from a blast furnace, as
he opened the door. He was quick to
decide n readily concluded that he
would not leave the house by the or
route. He threw his bed clothes
out of the window, cast his own raiment
after them, and then leaped out himself.
loot drop only. A few of the town
folk We're out and their numbers, were
increased by newcomers who had been
by the fire. The crowd was not
large; as st. Anne's cut small figure in
the census. There were fewer than for
ty families in the village. The hotel
was a finder box, and the end Of the
blaze could be readily foretold. NY
brother saw the landlady and the hired
man and a young woman who lived in
the mousse standing together, near a pile
OF clothing and easily. portable articles
they had rescued with themselves. He
looked about for the impolite man, burt
did not see him. Then he raised wild
INQUIRY. TOR his rancor did not go SO
Tar as TO WISH the man to burn to death.
WANTED TO RESCUE THE OLD MAN
"'Did the old man get out?e' called NV
brother to the hired man.
They was no n else in there said
the a
Yes. there was asserted my brother,
an old man with gray hair-a discour-
teous old, man, but he shall not be Gre
mated
"My brother had courage and started
to dash into the bonfire, but bystanders
restrained him..
house said the hired man, and intimat-
ed also, upon my brothers persisting to
the contrary, thai any one who said
otherwise was insane or incapable of
truth. Passing over the insult until
there We're no more lives to- save. nv
nrother asked the help Of the townsfolk
to get the person he felt sure was in
the house. He accurately described the
man he had seen in the dining room.
II didn't kill him. Upon my soul, I
kill him. 1t was the landlady who
broke out in this unexpected exclama-
lion Then she fell in a dead faint.
II guess you'd better come over to
the town hall with me, Bill said the
Mayor OF st. Anne's to the hired man.
who was working his way to the edge Of
the little press of people, as one with an
intention to escape. Take that woman
over to my house. continued the mayor
to the crowd generally, and Bill, you
come over to the town hall with me-.
B brother, upon invitation of the
mayor, also went to the town hall. The
mayor, a big muscular official, held the
hired man by the arm, as he unlocked
the door OF the little building and started
a light.
"'Did o ever know a man of the
name of Benson-James Benson?' he ask
ed of my brother. No. Well, the de-
scription of the man you saw in the din
ing is the exact figure of Benson,
and he died W years ago. He owned
the hotel that is burning, and this man.
Bill Gleason, and the ~landlady. Benson's
wife, were the only ones there when he
died. He went to bed all right one night
and he never woAe up
To cut 1t short, the woman confessed
before morning that she and Gleason had
put up the joJ to kill her husband (the
old man was thirty years older than
she) and get tine $ $500 for which he was
insured. At the time of the death there
was some suspicion that the affair wasn't
all square, but people are diffident some-
times about making afidavits to suspi~
only. The insurance paid
the policy and the matter dropped. The
burning of the hotel was a furtheH
scheme on the part of the pair to re-
alize on a fire insurance policy of 81. 200.
Gleason, when brought before the
--A -
of the murder and the arson. He was
not a strong man mentally and when
he began to talk, he couldn't do Confess
ing enough. Both were indicted and con-
victed on their statements and cor.
roborative evidence the neighbors could
furnish. The woman hecan MO a. 1innalou.