Williston graphic. (Williston, Williams County, N.D.) 1895-1919, 1901-02-28
CHAPTER XIV.

most Internal scoundrel?'
CHAPTER XIV.
A sleepless night had old John Fol.
som, and with the sun he was up
again and hurriedly dressing. Noise
less as he strove to be he was dis
covered, for as he issued from his
room into the dim light of the upper
hall there stood Pappoose.
"Poor Jess has been awake an hour"
said she. "We've been trying to see
the troops through the glass. They
must have started before daybreak,
for there's nothing on the road to
Frayne."
sit disappeared over the divide three
miles out" he answered vaguely, and
conscious that her clear eyes were
studying his face. II didn't sleep
we'll, either. We shall be having
news from Hal to-day, and the mail
rider comes down from Frayne."
She had thrown about her long,
loose wrapper, and her lustrous hair
tumbled like brown-black torrent
down over her shoulders and back.
Steadfastly the brown eyes followed
his every move.
st is an hour to breakfast time,
daddy dear; let me make you some
coffee before you go OUT
"What? Who said was going out ?"
he asked, forcing smile; then, more
gravely: "I'll be back in thirty min
utes, dear, but wait q moment I
cannot. want to catch man be-
tore he can possibly ride away"
He bent and kissed her hurriedly,
and went briskly down the stairs. In
the lower hall he suddenly struck a
parlor match that fared up and H.
lumined the winding staircase to tho
third story. Some thought as sudden
prompted her to glance aloft, just in
time to catch glimpse of woman's
face withdrawing swiftly over the
balcony rail. In her hatred of any
thing that savored of spying the girl
could have called aloud demand
to know what Mrs. Fletcher wanted,
but strange things were in the wind,
as she was learning, and something
whispered silence. Slowly she re.
turned to Jessie's side, and together
once more they searched with the
glasses the distant trail that, dis
tinctly visible now in the slant of the
morning sun, twisted up tho north
ward slopes on the winding way to
Frayne. Not Whit of dust could
they see. ...
Meantime John Folsom strobe swift
ly down the well-known path to the
quartermaster' depot, tumult Of
suspicion and conjecture whirling in
his brain. AS he walked he recalled
the many hints and stories that had
come to his ears of Burleigh's ante
cedents elsewhere and his associa-
tons here. With all his reputation
for enterprise and wealth, there were
'shady" tales of gambling transac-
tions and sailed mines and watered
stocks that attached perhaps more
directly to the men with whoM he
foregathered than to him. "A man
is known by the company he keeps"
said Folsom, and Burleigh's cronies,
until Folsom came to settle in Gate
City, had been almost exclusively
among the "sharps," gamblers and
their kindred, the projectors and pros
pectors ever preying on the unwary
on the outer wave of progress. With
in the past six months he had seen
much of him, for Burleigh was full Of
business enterprises, had Investments
everywhere, was lavish in invitation
and suggestion, was profuse in offers
of aid of any kind if aid were want.
ed. He had gone so far as to say that
he knew from experience how with his
wealth tied up in real estate and
mines man. often found himself in
need of few thousand in spot cash,
and as Folsom was buying and build
ing, if at any time he found himself
little short and needed ten or TWEEN
ty thousand, say, why, Burleigh's
bank account was at his service, etc.
1t all sounded large and liberal, aad
Folsom. whose lot for years had been
cast with a somewhat threadbare ar
ray of people, content with little,
impecunious but honest, wondered
what manner of martial man this
was. Burleigh did not loudly boast
of his wealth and influence, but i'm
pressed in some ponderous way his
hearers with sense of both. Yet,
ever since that run to Warriors Gap,
a change had come over Burleigh. He
talked more of mines and money and
showed less, and now, only yesterday,
when the old mans heart had mel
lowed to him because he had first held
him wholly to blame for Deans ar
rest and later found him pleading for
the young fellows release, strange
thing had happened. Burleigh con-
fided to him that he had simply fab
ulous opportunity-a chance to buy
out a mine that experts secretly told
him was what years later he would
have called "bonanza," but that in
the late sixties was locally known
as a Shanghai" Twenty-Five thou
sand dollars would do the trick, but
his money was tied up. Would Fol-
som go in with him, put up twelve
thousand five hundred, and Burleigh
would do the rest? Folsom had been
bitten by two mines that yielded only
rattlesnakes, and he couldn't be
lured. Then, said Burleigh, wouldn't
Folsom go on his note, so that he
could borrow at the bank? Folsom
seldom went on anybody's note. It
was as bad as mining. He begged of,
and left Burleigh disappointed, but
not disconnected. II can raise it
without trouble" said he, ''but it may