The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-11-08
THE ADVERTISERS DAILY SHORT STORY

The scorching summer had passed. and the October winds shrilled over the wastes of brown sage grass, where the prairie chickens fiuttered from every
 kno5l. and the sharp, insistent
 rang to and fro on the nipping frost-laden air.
 There was a vague hint of uneasiness among the men and cattle. Twice. there mad been a barely averted stampede, and the cause-there lay the crux of the mat ter.
 You have heard. how in the first days ot the Aiahc. 1t was owned by an Eng
 lishman who eet his traditions at naught,
 and took to wife the daughter of Jose,
 south, touching the Aiaho for miles? Then
 you have also heard the tale of the glass
 eyed broncho. who Galloped from ths
 Red death. straight into the cyclones
 Many years have come and gone since
 then. The black-eyed Nita sleeps in the
 old Spanish cemetery where the white trail of the mesa ends; and the English
 mar has gone to his own place over-sea
 Tn the old hacienda. a young Jose feigns in the old mans stead, but when the a,h-
 tamn comes. and the Dark Gods ride over the mountain crest and mesa, men say that the glass-eyed broncho .gallops out to
 the West-woe to the herd. and woe to the man that meets him along the ride, for death and ruin ride in the wake of
 the fire-shoa heels. and the cattle culver
 with fear. as the long drawn neigh shrilis out of the dark.
 White men. red men, cowboy and greas4 CT. when the night comes, and they
 gather at the gate of the corral. whisper 1 oninously, and there Is a silence that means trouble.
 John had laughed mucH and argued more. but against a dead wall of shrugs, The cattle had been restless and uneasy Tor days. the men not much better. No longer 1t dusk. the songs rang up from
 the corral, for the rufnor had gone among them:
 Rusty Pete had seen the glass-eye. Pete drank deeper and swore louder than ever before. Even Miguel iatly re fused to ride the South trail. and on John
 and things. including Miguel and the glass-eye, which was not a thing, he failed to answer to call. Neither were Bright-eyes or the papoose to be found John came in that night, seemingly hay ing caught the mood of the men, I stood 1 1t as long as woman-nature could be ex- pected to, and then began to question | him.
 Two or three turns up ana down the ! room, and then he faced around in his 1 favorite position on the hearthrus. 1 Tt amounts to this little woman; The I entire layout of the Alaho have gone ghost crazy, and there will be serious | trouble if I cannot find some way to stpo 1 It. Some have actually refused to ride the trail that leads from loses. I will ride
 1t shyself in the morning. At the present 1 stage of the game, It will never do to force an issue. Pete and Miguel together
 have set the whole force by the ears, and i the cattle seem to have caught it. too. | They are rowing all the time, and it is | hard enough to keep up with them as it
 is, without this, additional nonsense. | The morrow dawned-a perfect October
 day, and to Johns dismay. I ordered Red l Bess saddied. and insisted on riding that l trail with him.
 Let me go. 1t will do more to quiet 1 them than anything else," said, and af4
 ter a show of argument, he agreed with satufday's story, LOOPING OF CHINA,