The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1901-04-05
BY W. s. PORTER.
y HE sheriff of Siskiwah county
had a secret. He never told ii
to his best friend, but it was

K
to his best friend, but it was
= never out of his own mind. He
was physical coward. A shot fired
set his heart beating wildly, and he
turned sick at strife and carnage. His
pulse beats averaged 50 per minute
and his heart turned cold every time az
summons for arrest was placed in his
hands. He experienced a sensation of
nervous dread each time he swung
himself upon the back of his high spir-
tied horse. Every sudden sound con-
veying presage of danger thrilled him
with fright. His disposition was high
strung, sensitive and unalterably timid.
And yet Rad" Conrad was known as
the coolest and most courageous sheriff
in this territory. He had attained this
reputation by a daily and hourly strug-
gle with his whole moral force against
his natural weakness. His fear of dan
ger, great as it was had been subordi-
mated to greater fear lest his failing
be known. How to hide his cowardice
from the world was his one aim. With
cold fear in his heart he sought dan
ger with the eagerness Of one who low
ed its every phase. Quiet, persistent,
plodding in his way, without any of
the western dash and audacity belong
ing to most men in his occupation, he
continually sought the closest risks and
hazards, driven by an abnormal desire
to appear fearless. Men who had no
conception of the meaning of the word
fear" sometimes stood apart, aghast
at the mans daring, and admired him.
Apparently without the slightest eX-
citement, almost sullen of aspect, he
trailed desperate criminals to their rem
devious, engaged in combat against
mighty odds and waged such relentless
war upon desperadoes and outlaws
that his fame as an upholder of law
and order was spread far and wide.
Radcliff Conrad kept his secret well.
Not a man in Siskiwah county had
ever seen him finch from his duty, and
tales were told in saloons and camps of
his intrepidity and recklessness.
The sheriff's personal appearance
aided him. He was strongly and finely
formed. He possessed blond head of
classic mold and steel blue eye under
good control. His inward struggles
kept him at tension that gave him a
reserved and somewhat preoccupied
manner, and his every action seemed
the result of deliberation instead of i'm.
pulse. The giving away to impulse
was the thing he was trying to avoid
He felt that some day his moral cour:
age would fail him and he would stand
stripped to the gaze Of his friends the
coward that he knew himself to be
No monkish ascetic ever scourged his
feshly sins as Radcliff Conrad did his
one egregious failing! How well he
succeeded in triumphing over it his
fame in Lava Canyon and indeed II
the mouths OF, men as far as the sage
brush grew to east and west attested.
There came one cruel day when The
sheriff was forced to apply the whip t.
his tortured spirit with double force
The town of Lava Canyon was bull
on stretch of plain sloping down to ;
river from the exit of a mountain
gulch. Within this gulch was tangled
wildness Two miles back from til,
town it conyerged to fssure half
mile. deep like sword cut cleaving til,
hills. The sides for its whole exten
were inaccessible except to the rattle
powders Within the edge of the gulcl
where the densely wooded sides begal
to straighten to sleeper angles stoo,
the white painted cottage of Emme
s Reed, the postmaster and leading deal
er in hardware, cutlery, arms and an
munition. Here beside the mountai
stream and among the moss grow
rocks played the Juvenile Reeds, littl
more than Tushes in size, watched owe
more or less carefully by Roadicef
aged 20, eldest daughter of the house.
fA To these confines late one afternoo
came Arizona Dan, worst man in til
county, after breaking half a thousan
dollars worth of mirrors and glass
ware in the principal places of enter
tainmentSand introducing sundry slug
Of lead into various citizens, to thei
great bodily anguish. Dan was not to
drunk to entertain a wholesome fea
of Rad Conrad, and it was his intel
ton to conceal himself until darkness
should lend him cover to escape.
On being appraised Of these event
y uue Sleflu OIL the county, FecOSulZIu
his duty, prepared to effect Dams cal
ture. ia brave man in his place WI
properly estimated the value of a goo
citizens life in comparison with the v
tai spark of a degenerate like Arizon
Dan as furtherance of the surviv
Of the fittest idea would have summon
ed a posse and by moral force of nun
bers would have secured the surrend,
of the offender without risk of bloc
shed. Radcliff Conrad was not IL
man to do this. He Stunned all a
pearance of lack of courage, as he
sired in his heart to shun the danger.
,E ssWhat arms did lie have?" asked Il
sheriff of some men who had seen Al
iona Dams retreat to the gulch.
Nary a one said u saloon Keep
who had suffered from the fugitive
iconoclasm. He left both his guns
my place.
The sheriff unbuckied his revoly