Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1901-05-17
CHAPTER VII.

There was trouble at the Preside.
All but ten of the escaped prisoners
had been recaptured or self-surren-
dered, but the ten still at large were
among the worst of the array, and
among the ten was the burly, hulk
ing recruit enlisted under the name
of Murray, but declared by Capt.
Kress, on the strength of the report
of a detective from town, to be
earlier and better known as Sackett
and as former member of the Sew
enth cavalry. from which regiment
he had parted company without the
formality Of either transfer OF dis
charge.
Murray was man worth his keep,
as military records of misdemeanors
went, and q sore-headed fellow was
the sergeant of the guard, held re-
sponsible for the wholesale escape.
And yet it was not 40 much the SER
geant's fault.
The evening had come on dark,
damp and dripping. Gas lamps and
barrack lanterns were lighted before
the sunset gun. The sergeant him
self and several of the guard had
been called inside to the prison room
by the commanding officer and his
staff. There was maze of brick
and wooden buildings in front of the
guard-house, and a perfect tangle of
dense shrubbery only so yards away
to the west. 1t was into this that
most of the fugitives dived and were
instantly lost to sight, while others
had doubled behind the guard-house
and rushed into an alley-way that
passed in rear of the club and ROW
of officers quarters.
Some of them apparently had taken
refuge in the cellars or wood and
coal sheds until thick darkness came
down, and others had actually dared
to enter the quarters of Lieut.. Ray
for the back door was found wide
open, the sideboard. wherein had
been kept some choice old Kentucky
whisky produced only on special oc'
casions, had been forced, and the
half-emptied demijohn and some
| glasses stood on the table in poo
of sloppy water.
| But what was worse, the ieuten
ants desk in the front room, secure
ly locked when he went to town
hads been burst open with a chisel
and Mr.. Ray had declined to say how
much he had lost. Indeed, he did no
fully know.
100 busy to come in," was thu
message he had sent his mother tn,
morning after the discovery, and We
all that morning he remained abou
his quarters after one brief inter
view with the perturbed and exasper
| ated post commander, ransackinl
desks, drawers and trunks in tn
vain hope that he might find in ther
some of the missing property, for lit
tie by little the realization was force
upon him that his loss would sur
up several hundreds-all through hi
own neglect and through disregar
Of his fathers earnest counsel.
| Only three days before the lieuter
ant commanding his troop had bee
sent to Oregon and Washington o
duty connected with the musterin
of volunteers. Their captain was
field officer of one of the regiment
of his native state, and, in hurriedl
leaving, Lieut.. Creswell had turne
over to his young subordinate nc
only the troop fund, amounting t
over $500, but the money belongin
to the post athletic association, an
marked envelopes containing the pa
of certain soldiers on temporary d,
tached service-in all between 500
and $1,000.
Whenever you have care of pull
lie money-even temporarily-put
at once into the nearest Unite
States depository" said his fathe
Even office safes in garrison are nc
safe" he had further said. CLERK
somehow, learn the combination an
are tempted sometimes beyond the
strength. Lose no time, therefor
In getting your funds into the bank
in this case, only, as the abse,
troopers were expected to return
two days, what was the use of brea,
ing up those sealed envelopes and d
posting the whole thing only to ha,
to draw it out in driblets again ,
the men came to him for it?
There stood his own desk, beaut
ful and costly thing-his mother