Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1901-09-20
copyrighted. 1900. by the J. B. Lippinco.. Co.
CHAPTER VII.

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
u1 Murray, but declared by Capt.
KEess. ON the strength of the report
.0G 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
fo-naality OF either transfer or dis
charge.
Murray was man worth his keep,
as military records of misdemeanors
E~ent, and a sore-headed fellow was
the sergeant of the guard, held re-
sP0nsible for the wholesale escape.
And yet it was not so much the SER
geant's fault.
The evening had come on dark,
damp and dripping. Gas lamps and
narrack lanterns were lighted before
the sunset gun. The sergeant him
self and several of the guard had
been called inside to the prison room
ny the commanding officer and his
staff. There was maze of brick
and wooden buildings in front of the
guard-house, and perfect tangle of
dense shrubbery only so yards away
20 the west. It was into this that
most of the fugitives dived and were
Erstantly lost to sight, while others
h.sd doubled behind the guard-house
and rushed into an alley-way that
passed in rear of the club and a row
of officers quarters
Some of them apparently had taken
refuge in the cellars or wood and
sosl sheds until thick darkness came
down, and others had actually dared
40 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 a pool
tOf sloppy water.
But what was worse, the lieuten-
ants desk in TIE front room, secure
" locked when he went to town,
had been burst open with chisel.
and Mr.. Ray had declined to say how
much he had lost. Indeed, he did not
fully know.
Too busy to come in," was the
sssessage he had sent his mother the
morning after the discovery, and yet
ali that morning he remained about
mis- quarters after one brief inter
<iew with the perturbed and exasper-
ated post commander, ransacling
desks, drawers and trunks in the
sain hope that he might find in them
some of the missing property, for lit
lie by little the realization was forced
apon him that his loss would sum
mp several hundreds-all through his
own neglect and through disregard
@f his fathers earnest counsel.
Only three days before the lieuten-
ent commanding his troop had been
sent to Oregon and Washington on
duty connected with the mastering
a volunteers. Their captain was u
held officer of one of the regiments
0f his native state, and, in hurriedly
Eeaying, Lieut.. Creswell had turned
ever to his young subordinate not
only the troop fund, amounting to
over $500, but the money belonging
TO the post athletic association, and
Hrarked envelopes containing the pay
at certain soldiers on temporary de-
<zehed service-in all between $9c0
nrd 81 600.
Whenever you have care of pub
SC money-even temporarily-put il
st once into the nearest United
States depository" said his father.
~Even Office safes in garrison are not
SAFE" he had further said. 'Clerks
somehow, learn the combination and
arc tempted sometimes beyond their
strength. Lose no time, therefore,
i'm getting your funds into the bank
And that was what he meant to dc
I'm this case, only, as the absent
troopers were expected to return in
eVro days, what was the use of break
ing up those sealed envelopes and de-
ensiting the whole thing only to have
TO draw it out in driblets again as
the men came to him for it?
There stood h's own desk. beauti