Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1901-04-26

when, as now, disbursing officers were
forbidden to gamble, but when, not as
now, the law was a dead letter. Bur-
leigh had gambled for years; had, with
little remorse, ruined more than one
man, and yet stood now awe-stricken
and dismayed and wronged by Fate,
since luck had turned at last against
him. Large sums had been lost to
players as memorable as he himself
had been. Large sums had been di-
verified from the government channels
il his charge, some to pay his so-called
debts of honor, some to cover abstrac-
lions from other funds, s'robbing Pc
ter to pay Paul." some to silence peo-
pie who knew too much; some, ay,
most of it, in fact, to cover margins,
and once money gets started on that
grade it slips through ones fingers like
quicksilver. At the very moment when
Arson Burleigh's envious cronies were
telling each other he stood far ahead
of the world, the figures were telling
him he stood twenty thousand dollars
behind it. and that, too, when he was
confronted by two imperative calls for
spot cash, one for ten thousand to
Warrior Gap, another for a sum almost
as big to stake" man who never yet
had turned an honest penny, yet held
the quartermaster where he dare not
say so-where indeed he dare not say
no.
elf you haven't it you know where
you can get it-where you have often
got it before, and where you'd better
get it before it's too late;" these
were words said to him that very
morning, in tones so low that none
but he could hear; yet they were
ringing in his head now like the boom
Of some tolling bell. Time was when
he had taken government money and
turned it into handsome profit
through the brokers of San Francisco
and Chicago. But, as Mr.. John Oak
hurst Remarked: ''There's only one
thing certain about luck. and that
is it's bound to change" and change
it had, and left him face to face with
calamity and dishonor. Where was
he to raise the ten thousand dollars
that must be sent to the post quar-
termaster at Warrior Gap? The end
| of the fiscal year was close at hand.
He dare not further divert funds from
| one appropriation to cover shortages
| in another. He could borrow from
| the banks, with good lndOrSer, but
| what indorser was there good enough
| but John Folsom ?-the last man now
whom he could bear to have suspect
! that he was in straits. Folsom was
| reported to be worth two hundred
| thousand dollars, and that lovely girl
| would inherit half his fortune. There
| lived within his circle no man, no
| woman in whose esteem Burleigh so
blundered at the start. Damn that
cub who dared to lecture him on the
evils of poker! Was boy lieutenant
| to shame him before officers of the
| generals staff and expect to go I'M
whipped? Was that butt-headed sub
altern to be the means of running his
prospects right here and now when he
stood so sorely in need of aid? Was
the devil himself in league against
him, that that boys sister should turn
out to be the closest friend old Fol-
SONS daughter ever had-a girl to
whom father and daughter both were
devoted. and through her were doubt
less interested in the very man he
had been plotting to pull down? Bur-
leigh savagely ground his teeth to-
gether.
| RIO Be Continued