The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-09-16

letter for papa, Mr.. Heiner?' 'Yaas.' re-
piled the man. who at once laid aside the
cue and started In most painfully Ia
borious fashion to shuttle UP to the front
of the room behind the bar. He then took
down cigar box. extracted letter and
handed IL to the little girl His next move
was in the direction Of the blackboard.
from which he proceeded TO erase the name
of the owner of the letter. This explained
the trick and I thought IL quite an i'm
provement over some methods Of handling
mail which had run across in my wan
derings. 1t certainly did away with lot
Of useless questions from people who were
looking for mail or who wanted their neigh
bors to think they had correspondents /
at once set about cultivating the proprietor
OF the combined postoffice and saloon, tell
ing him was an insurance agent who had
come to the village to transact little bust
ness. / learned that the mail was brought
from the depot, rather railroad, by a
boy on horseback and that there were two
mails each day. but the boy made only one
trip, waiting at the track until the later
mail arrived. The lad usually reached the
'postoff1ce' late in the morning Then be-
gan TO wait for Macs letter to arrive.
When the rustic youth deposited his sack
of mail in the saloon along about noon /
delighted to see the proprietor a few
minutes afterwards chalk UP McCoy's name
on the blackboard I fully expected mes
senger 10 come after the letter in short
time after the mail arrived. but to my sur
prise the minutes heightened out into hours
and still nobody came.
AFTER THE LETTER.
Finally, closing time was pretty close
at hand and / was about to give up and
leave the place when the door opened, ad-
hitting a youth of about sixteen years of
age. Taking look at the board. he called
for McCoy's letter. FASTENED to the street
in order to have a better opportunity TO
note which direction he went after leaving
the saloon. I knew he would not go out
the back way because the stream ran along
close to the saloon on that side. When the
lad emerged he started in the direction of
the bridge, but did not pass through it, taxi
ing instead a road which ran through
strip of timber close at hand. The boy
kept in the middle of the road, while l
followed along in the rear, close enough
to observe him, but at the same time en-
deavoring TO keep him from noticing me.
l was also compelled to avoid the observa-
ton of other travellers on the road. At one
point lost track of the boy and then came
near laundering directly upon him, as I
discovered that another road crossed the
one upon which we had been walking and
he had stopped at the corner of fence to
talk with another lad. The sound of their
voices warned me in time to escape their
notice. In order to reach a point where
could overhear their conversation / jumped
the other fence and slipped across pasture
TO a clump of weeds. which was only
short distance from the two boys. Here 1
learned from their talk that the boy 1 was
following was named Sam and that they
were talking good time they had
enjoyed the night previously. and making
| arrangements for a repetition of it soon.
My position was very comfortable, or
would have been had not Sam been accom-
panied by little dog which possessed an
uncommonly inquisitive turn of mind. He
| put in his time shifting around the fence
corners and running to and fro on voyage
of discovery. Finally he ran on to me and
began to bark as if he would split his
throat. feared the boys would come over
to see what the dog had found, but instead
they parted, Sam continuing on his way
home, followed by the pestiferous canine.
ENTERED A HOUSE.
| ST tracked him to the door of a house
| which he entered in such a manner that /
| knew he belonged there. 1 proceeded TO
follow boldly and knocked for admission.
| The door was opened almost at once by a
| medium-sized man. wearing a bushy beard
| which almost completely curtained his face.
| I told him / was a stranger on my way to
| neighboring town, to which 1 had started
| on foot, but that / had underestimate the
| distance and felt obliged to ask for a
| nights lodging. After looking me over
from head to foot the man appeared salts
fed with my appearance and invited me to
enter the house. There was nobody in the
| .parlor' except an old lady and little girl,
| engaged in looking at a book together.
They at once left the room. 1 soon found
the mans name was Atkins and that he
was of the same inquisitive turn of mind
| as Sans little dog. By persistent ques-
tioning he learned that was an insurance
| agent transacting business in that section
of the country. In the midst of long ex-
| PLANTATION of the insurance business which
was giving Mr.. Atkins the door opened and
man walked in. had never seen Mccoy
in person, but had no trouble in recognizing
1
oughly desperate character, did not fee
by any means easy / knew from his rec
ord that he would not submit to arrest
without a long and hard fight. If had un-
derstood the real relations existing between
him and my host / might have adopted a
different course. but I reasoned that in a
fight between Mac and myself Mr. Atkins
would scarcely lend assistance to a strang.
er as against his own guest. However, Nc
Coy merely glanced at me in a curious
manner and sat down IL my rear and lit.
tie to the left and began TO read news
paper. I knew, of course, that he was lis
tening TO the conversation between Mr. At
kins and myself. In few minutes he got
up and walked out without saying word
I wondered If he had suspected my identity
and was making his ecape. If so. it sim
ply meant that I would have to begin my
search all over again. IL not. ! had per
haps the hardest part of my task ahead o.
me in the morning. The next morning
when I went out to the pump TO perform
my additions was pleased to observe
Mac working near the stable door as i
nothing had happened After breakfas
Mr. Atkins told Mac to take the brusl
. |