Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1901-08-28
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copyrighted. 1900. BY me J. B. Lippiucott Col

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lSopyr'Rhted. 1900 BY The J. B. Lippincott Col
CHAPTER VII. ...
A tn ,, was trouble at the Preside.
Al but ten of the escaped prisoners
nag been recaptured or seH-surren-
uered' 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
OF Murray, but declared by Capt.
5hress, on the strength of the report
or detective from town, to be
earlier and better known as iSackett
and as a former member of the Sew
enth. cavalry, from which regiment
he had parted company without the
tormality of either. transfer or dis
charge.
Murray was man worth his keen.
as military records OF, misdemeanors
went, and Q headed fellow was
the sergeant of the guard, held re-
sPonslbie; for the Wholesale escape.
And yet it was not so much the ser
geant's fault. a -
!, The evening had come ION dark.
damp and dripping. Gas lamps and
narrack lanterns were lighted before
1ne sunset gun. The sergeant him
self and. several of the guard had
been called inside to the prison room
by the commanding officer and his
stan. There, was q maze of brick
and wooden building s in front of the
guard7house, and perfect tangle of
dense? shrubbery only so yards away
60 the vest 1t, was into this that
most OF the fugitives dived and were
instantly lost to sight, while others
had doubled behind the guard-house
and rushed into an >alley-way shat
passed in rear of the club and row
of officers quarters.
Z Some of them apparently had taken
refuge in the cellars or wood and
coal sheds until thick darkness came
down, and others had actually dared
to enter the quarters of Eieut. 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
haf-emptied demijohn and some
glasses stood on the table in a pool
of sloppy water. u. : -: v,
But what was worse, the lieuten-
ants desk in the front room, secure
~ locked when he went to town,
had been burst open with a chisel.
and Mr.. Ray had declined, to say how
much he had lost. Indeed, he did not
fully know. ~.2l,.,j3. .:.:t-;,.-.l T., =.
"Too busy to come in" was the
message he had sent his mother the
morning after the discovery, and yet
all that morning he remained about
his quarters after one brief inter-
view with the perturbed and -exasper-
ated post commander. ransacking
desks, drawers and trunks in the
vain hope that he might find in them
some of the missing property, for lit
tie by little the realization was forced
upon him that his loss would sum
up several .hundreds-all through his
own neglect and through disregard
of his fathers earnest counsel.
Only three days before the ieuten-
ant commanding his troop had been
sent to Oregon and Washington on
duty connected with the mastering
of volunteers. Their captain was a
field officer of one of the regiments
of his native state; and, in hurriedly
leaving, Lieut.. Creswen had turned
over to his young subordinate not
only the troop fund, amounting to
over $500, but the money belonging
to the post athletic association, and
marked envelopes containing the pay
of certain soldiers on temporary de-
tached service-in all between 5000
and 81 900. ~ RI -
whenever you have care of pub
lie money-even temporarily-put it
at 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
are tempted sometimes beyond their
strength. Lose no time, therefore,
in getting your funds into the bank -
And that was what he meant to do
in this case, only, as the absent
troopers were expected to return in
two days, what was the nsesof break
ingsnp those sealed envelopes and de-
posting the whole thing: only to have
to draw it out in driblets again as
the men came to him for it?
There stood his own desk, a beauti-
full and costly thing-his mothers
gift-with it's strong locks and intri-
cate. system of pigeon-holes and Sc
cret drawers. He would "chance it,
one night, he said, and give his trust
ed servant orders to stand guard
over the premises, and so the little
bag of gold went into one closed com
partment, the envelopes and wads of
treasury notes into the hidden
drawer, and the key into his watch
pocket. - -y.. -, q. ,.,,, ~. ,,.,s.
His servant was a young man
whose father had been with Col. Ray
for, a, quarter of a. century, a faithful
Irishman by the name of Hogan He
was honest to the core and had but
one serious failure-he would drink.
And now Saturday morning, while
the guns of Alcatraz we're booming
in salute across the bay and all the
garrison was out along the shore or
on the seward heights, waving fare
we'll to the Vinton fotilla, and his
mother and Maidie had gone out with
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