Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1901-05-16

i
norman answering his description had
boarded the transcontinentaI trains far
OF nenr. Butte was a big, struggling
frontier town, illimitable in tts future
possibilities, said the promoters, /" and
equally illimitable in present devices
for concealing stolen property or steal
ing practitioners. Butte had large
floating population and small sinking
fund, the latter devoted to rewards for
capture of malefaotors, and Conway had
widespread reputation for sleepless
vigilance and luckless ventures. He
made many arrests, and nearly as many
errors in the eyes of the law, since con.
yictions were few and far between. He
had gloried in his seven desperadoes
just about 48 hours. Then as man after
man looked them over and said he
couldn't testify against them, az they
proved to be perfect strangers, Con-
ways face grew lined and anxious. It
began to look as though failure were
again about to stamp him, when some
one suggested that Pat Healy at the
post could tell him all be wanted to
know, and somebody else whispered
that the sooner he got every man even
remotely connected with the robbery
the better would it be for his chance of
reelection. Then be came to Ransom
trebly armed, but his very first victim
| proved far too clever, adroit and dan
gerous. The knife was driven furiously,
and it was Gods mercy the sheriff was
not killed outright.
And then Miss Leroy, the Mainwar-
ings' guest, had developed an odd fad
for an eastern girl. A more independent
young woman had never been seen at
Ransom. She was always unlike other
girls, said Mrs. Mainwaring She had
always visited the poor and needy at
home, had headed all manner of ohari-
table schemes as young girl and had a
mania for reading aloud to the sick.
Few Of the ladies of the -th, deeply
imbued though some Of them were with
religious faith, had ever thought it
their duty to visit the patients in the
big post hospital. The surgeon and the
steward did all that. The young assist
ant surgeon was bachelor and suscep-
tible. Miss Leroy's plea to be allowed
to visit the hospital was eagerly grant
ed, and he himself was there to escort
her.
One Of the first patients to interest
her was Sheriff Conway. to whom she
was now reading aloud an hour every
morning. Mild raillery had no effect
upon her. Expostulation was not resort.
ed to, for it speedily developed that,
with ell her slender, dainty physique,
Miss Leroy had a vigorous, if placid,
will OF her own. The post surgeon had
said there was no harm whatever, in
fact it was blessing to more patients
than one, therefore by all means lei
Miss Leroy keep it up. Thereafter there
was no one to say her nay. Secretly
Mrs. Mainwaring had hoped the colonel
and her husband would express disap.
proval, but, with the perversity of their
sex, they persisted in saying to Miss
Leroy that she was an angel of goodness
and it was wonder that other women
had not done likewise long before. By
the time she had been three weeks at
Ransom Kate Leroy was better known
and infinitely better loved in the quar-.
tiers Of the married soldiers whose little
ones were ailing and in the wards Of
the big hospital than 9ll but two -ni