Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-10-24

lations in a still louder tone, which de-
veloped into frantic and incoherent de-
mands for news and opinions as to what
must be the matter. as she listened to
the following conversation at Jenny's
end of the line:
Hello! Yes. Jenny. What did you
say? Ruhers? 40? WHAT Robberse
oh, robbers. Oh. oh. Where are you?
Oh, my Where is the stage now? Yes. l
can go down the flume. Goodbye
Dropping the receiver. Jenny made a
dash for her sunbonnet and another dash
for the fiume. her mother following her
and frantically imploring to be told what
was the matter. AS she ran Jenny said:
ROBBERS going to hold up the stage.
Father tied in halfway house. Robbers
waiting at Lon Rock Point. Tn going
down the tiume to warn them" and by
this time she had a plank in The furie
and had started on her perilnus ride,
waving her distracted and beuilderad
mott er a 1leetirg farewell with her hand.
1t seems that Mr.. Butts had been
waiting at the halfway house tor the up
stage that was bringing the superin-
dent, and both he and the watcher had
been suddenly set upon by two men,
Knocked down and securely bound hand
and foot. He gathered from a few re-
marks dropped by their assailants that
they We're going to hold u the stage at
Lone Rock Point, about half q mile far
Their down the road and just at the head
or a steep grade. When the robbers had
gone. he thought of a scheme to use the
telephone, and explained it to his COM
panion. Fortunately it was a low one,
on a taale. Rolling over and over on the
floor the two men managed to work their
wa RI tho q h1a 1r ,.;, i. 1:%41a ..:z,-
held by the teeth Butts succeeded in
knocking both the receiver and trans
mitter off the table to the floor. The bell
was also rung with the teeth. He first
tried the office at the station, but the
robbers had cut the wire on that side.
He then rang four bells for his house
at the upper end of the line and was an
swered. Lying on the floor, with his
mouth in front of the transmitter, his
companion holding the receiver hear his
ear with his teeth, he explained the stu
alton to Jenny, and now the brave girl
was swiftly gliding down the f1ume to
the rescue.
Although she had seen the men ride
the funle, Jenny had never done so
herself, and she chung to her plank in
desperation as the landscape slipped
rapidly by her. When she swept over
a high trestle or along the rocky side
OF a precipice, her heart came into her
mouth, as she gazed doWn to the rocky
depths below; yet she was not the girl to
let her fears master her resolution or
swerve her from her purpose. She
watched for the halfway house., but it
was no part of her purpose to stop there
and release the prisoners. She knew that
there was barely time to warn the stage
in time if she kept on without stopping.
@ 80 49, -.At-
with the window she noted the two fig
ures lying on the floor, and gave them a
shout of encouragement, to let them
know that help would soon come. This
nerved her for her great trial just ahead,
for she knew that she must pass the
robbers themselves at Lone Rock Point,
Wher the fiume ran close to the road, and
but a few feet below it's level. She could
scarcely expect to pass without being
seen, and it was not unlikely the robbers
would seize her as she passed, or, failing
in that, they would probably endeavor
to shoot her, to prevent her giving warm
ing. So she pressed her lips together and
offered up a prayer for strength and pro-
lection. In another minute she came in
sight of the huge rock towering above
the road at the turn to which it had
given it's name, and as she approached
nearer she saw the figures of two men
reclining in the shade of the bank just
below the road, and almost on a level
with the fiume. She swished by in a
flash, but not until she had recognized
them as Tom Cooper and Lon Jones,
their masks having been removed in
their fancied security.
She had passed but a few yards when
they saw and recognized her, and knew
that she had also recognized them. With
an oath, Jones sprang to his feet and
raised his rifle to his shoulder, and with
a similar oath Cooper also sprang to his
feet and knocked the weapon to one side,
just as it was discharged. Jones swore
again, but this time at his companion in
crime.
TIL teach you to play traitor" he
shouted, as he jumped back a short dis
tance, threw another cartridge into the
barrel Of his Winchester, and bringing
the gun to his shoulder shot his partner
in the breast. Tom fell and expired al
most in an instant, and Jones turned and
fled across the canyon.
All this Jenny saw as she chung des-
perately to her rapidly gliding board
and looked behind her as best she could.
Raising herself to a STOPPING position,
she suddenly sprang up as she swept un-
der the branches, and clasped them with
both her hands. Her momentum car
ried her body down, and her weight bent
the branches, but she chung to them in
spite of the bruises she received, finally
getting a footing on the plank running
along tn eside of the fume. The she
sprang to the ground, scrambled up the
steep bank to the road, and ran up the
grade as fast as it's steepness would per-
nit.
Half a mile further down the road the
stage was toiling slowly up the grade,
the superintendent of the mill sitting on
the box with the driver. The latter
heard the shot spat over the wheel and
remarked:
IT reckon Butts is shootin' grouse fer
dinner Coin up to take a snack with
'em, amt ye?"