Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1901-05-22
DON'T like to leave you here
alone dauUhter The head cOn-

DON'T like to leave you here
alone, daughter" The head con.
tractor looked troubled.
Marion swept defiant shrek from
her violin. "Alone!" she returned
with the foreman and 60 negroes
working right around me, here on the
levee. and only two miles from town.
Look, dear" Her father beckoned
hec into his tiny stateroom. He opened
his trunk and motioned towards hear
of canvas bags and sealed envelopes.
"Why-ee! Why did you get so much
of the mems pay in silver?'
THAT fool Rodgers brought it over
on horseback. Told him to cash it all
in greenbacks, but he forgot, as usual
There's $1,000; the pay for the up-river
gang, as we'll as this one. Think you
can keep an eye on it for the hour
I'm away? There's really no danger;
the blacks don't know it's here"
But they know it's always sent you
on Saturday noon"
That's fact. But they would never
try to rob the cabin in broad daylight
They're an irresponsible set, though"
He glanced through the ca bin window
at the endless chain of blue-shirted
figures creeping up and down the river
bank with spade and harrow. The
dull rhythm of their chant mingled
with the ripple of the yellow Ohio be.
low. The boathouse seemed to beat
obedient time as it swung on the slow
waves.
"Iou mean they might kill the fore
man and me to get that money if they
knew it was here? 1t would only give
them about $50 piece. They wouldn t
murder us for that
''Of course not. But I'd take it all
what may happen"
Nonsense, papa. Go on to town
and don't you dare to come back with
out letter for me!'
From Manila or New York;"
There's just one town in the world
for me-" hummed Marion.
manila, then?'
'Of course. Adios, papa!"
She kissed her hand to him as he
rode away. 1t would be lonely here in
this sitting boat, rocking on brazen
stream, with nothing to see but trees
and sky, red clay embankment and
an army of half-clad negroes, toiling
under the lash of the foreman's voice
Sometimes she wished that she had
not INDUCED her within to spend the
month with her father at his work;
but the Manila mails are far between
and she could not sit and look at one
photograph all summer, no matter how
attractive it might be.
The opposite bank lay green anc
cool under deep willow shade. "I'c
i like to row over there, if could take
the money along" she thought, as she
lifted the trunk lid again and inspected
the contents. "But there's such LOT
why, Peter, what do you want?"
Peter, the cooks boy, stood at he1
elbow. Jim wants know what you'c
laik for supper" he said, dropping his
eyes before her sharp glance, but not
in time to hide their coyetous CLEAN.
go back and tell him I'll send wore
presently" She slid the door bolt as
Peter shambled down the deck. 81
am an awful coward, and I wish he
hadn't seen this. Here!" She picked
UP her violin case and packed thu
money into it. eff they should come
they'll never lock there!"
Half ashamed of her fears, she went
back to the main cabin and took up he1
violin again. Unconsciously the music
drifted into a slow, tuneless accom-
paniment of the chant without; she
played on and on, smiling dreamily tc
herself; but suddenly the bow fell
from her hands.
The chant of the negroes without
had ceased! J
why, they're stopping work! i
isn't near sikh" She leaned eagerly
from the window. The men. hat
dropped their tools and were running
to the skiff landing, where crowG
had already gathered. Above the mass
of woolly heads she saw the foreman's
white-shirted arms lifted once, twice
then the crowd swayed back, as two
huge negroes thrust their, way
through. The foreman's body SWUNG
Imply between them. They flung il
into skiff, then kicked the boat out
into the current. 1t careened a mo
ment, then swept away down stream
The blood leapeds in Marion's
throat. She felt no conscious pity fol-
the foreman. It was just hideous
], puPPetg show, this mutiny. .'And Tn
tt for the next game" she thought
as she watched the men scrambline
across the plank bridge to the cabin
boat. She put the heavy, violin case or
8 the floor beside her, and picked up he1
violin. 4 % $.5 a #5*E
'I'll die game, she said, between
4 hsr teeth, as she began to play. Al