Waterbury Democrat., 1900-11-03
CHAPTER XV.

less 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 hcur,' 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."
 Tt, disappeared over the divide three miles out he answered vaguely, and conscious that her clear eyes were studying his face. "I didn't sleep we'll, either. We shall be having news from Hal to-day. and the mail rider comes down from Frayne."
 She had thrown about her long, loose wrapper, and her lustrous hair tumbled like a brown-b,ack torrent down over her shoulders and back. Steadfastiy the brown eyes followed his every move.
 Tt is an hour to breakfast time, daddy dear; let me make you some coffee before you go out.'
 'What? Who said I was going out" he asked, forcing q smile; then, more gravely: "l'll be back in thirty min utes, dear, but wait moment I cannot. l want to catch q man be- fore he can possibly ride away
 lie bent and kissed her hurriedly, and went briskly down the stairs. Ill the lower hall he suddenly struck a parlor match that hared up and il- lumined the winding staircase to the third story. Some thought as sudden prompted her to glance alcft, just in time to catch glimpse of a woman's face withdrawing swiftly over the balcony rail. In her hatred of any thing that savorcd of spying the girl could have called aloud demand to know what Mrs. Fletcher wanted, but strange things were in the wind, as she was learning, and -mething whispered silence. Slowly she re- turned to Jessie's side, and together once more they searched with the glasses the distant trail that, dis tinctly visible now in the slant of the morning sun, twisted up the north ward slopes on the winding way to Erayne. Not Whiff of dust could they see.
 Meantime John Folsom strode swift ly down the well-llnown path to the quarterIlastcrS depot, tumult Of suspicion and conjecture whirling in his brain. As he walked he recalled the many 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 saltcd mines and watered rho directly to tho men with whom he foregathered than to him. "A man is known by the company he leeps," said Folsom. and Burleigh's crones, until Folsom came to 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 in the past six months he had seen much of him, for Burlcigh 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 cd. 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, if at any time he found himself q little short and needed ten or twen- ty thousand. say, why, Burlcigh's bank account was at his service, etc. It 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, i1npecunious but honest, wondered what manner of martial man this was. Burleigh did not loudly boast of his wealth and influence, but inn pressed in some pondcreus way his hearers with a sense of both. Yet. ever since that run to Warriors Gap, q change had come over Burleigh. He talked more 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 Dcan's ar rest and later found him pleading for the young fellows release, a strange thing had happened. Burleigh con fdcd to him that he had a simply fab- ulous opportunity-a chance to buy ouC si lIlAIS tiidl pCl lS SSCIcllS lOlti him was what years later he would have called "bonanza," but that in the late sixties was locally known as a shanghai" Twenty-Five thou sand dollars would do the trick, but his money was tied up. Would Fol som go in with him. put up twelve thousand five hundred, and Burleigh would do the rest? Folsom had been bitten by two mines that yielded only rattlesnakes, and he couldn't be lured. Then. said Burleigh, wouldn't Folsom go on his note. so that he could borrow at the bank? Folsom seldom went on anybody's note. It was as bad as mining. He begged off, and left Burleigh disappointed, but not disconcerted. T can raise it without trouble.' said he, but it may take fortyeight hours to get the cash here, and I thought you would be glad to be let in on the. ground Goor.' ulS 43 ssJ'ya ibhan5 1af in +o { foo y,,ny