Sunday morning globe., 1901-11-10
revere rodgers
UnrOllS a Weird Tale Of Murder
and Mystery.
THE SUPERNATURAL FIGURES
And The Reader is Left 10 Make His Own
OeduotIon-Tha Wild Night Ride and Aur-
dsr-Tho Corpse In tho Barrel and The
Lonsly-Hut en- The Prairie.

4 AAN INV ANuAlOn 10 uAlNAAN LllH kluuA
Saturday nights blowout" over at
Thompson's Cut had been received
several days before at our place, and
we had spent the intervening time I'm
cleaning up our various accountre.
merts in order to do the full honors
to such an important event
The cow day outfit at Thompson's,
let it be known, were the very elite
of all outfits and to receive an in
vitation from them was an event to
be proud Of Rumor had 1t that every
mothers son of them was a graduate
Of some Eastern college, who through
dissipation or some other cause had
deserted the luXuries of the East for
the wild and daredevil life Of the
West
Now / would not like to vouch for
the truth of the above statement. but
/ viii take an oath that the Thomp-
sons Cut crowd was composed Of the
best set of educated men it had ever
been my luck to meet in my various
experiences in the West
Their cook responded to eplthets
hurled at his culinary accomplish
ments in seven different languages.
His comrades were quite as proficient
as he i'm this regard and their good
natured bandinage was a perpetual
source of amazement to many Eastern
tourist, who had attempted to patron
ize this highly interesting outfit
But aside from tLeir educational
qualifications they We're really a set Of
remarkable young men, Every man
of them played some musical instru-
ment while several had voices of re-
marllable powers. Voices that had per-
haps been cultivated under the direc-
ton of famous masters / have often
and often wished to hear some one
that could play Schubert's serenade
as doe" Travers used to play it, on
that queer little organ in that quaint
little church at Santa Clara.
] have never to this day heard the
"NIiserere" sung like "BiR" Hallwell
used to sing it; and I have yet to hear
the baritone that could equal Dick
Bell i'm singing the Toreador's song
as "Dick" sang it that July night, as
we rested on the banks Of the Rio
Grande to the accompaniment of Phil
lips guitar All, those were indeed
our halcyon days.
We had looked forward to this Satur-
day nights celebration with all the
earnestness of schoolboys, had talked
of nothing else i'm fact since the inyi
tations had first been received
whether we were out on the lonely
ranges or were snugly esconced be-
side a roaring wood fire, that, and this,
only, formed the sole topic Of our con-
| vorsation. ! never reached ThOmp-
sons on that night neither did Cor
don, poor, poor old fellow.
OF all the wild and blustery nights
i'm my recollection, I think that with
| -ut exception, the night Of the cele-
hration at ThompsOn's was the worst
The binding snow seemed to get down
your throat, up your nose and into
YOUR eyes all at the same instant
/ Ugh: the horror of that awful night
seems to creep over me yet when
ever I see a snow storm.
1t was just about six o'clock when
| Miller Kendrick, Engels, Gordon and
myself left our camp and started on
our journey to Thompson's Cut, that
memorable Saturday evening, 1t was
rapidly growing dark and although
| the night looked stormy there was
nothing in the atmosphere to cause
MS any great amount of uneasiness.
| The distance to ThompsOn's was only
| about fifteen miles, and no one had
/ the slightest doubt about our ability
| to make that distance in time for the
/ festivities.
We had not gone more than a half
/ mile before II began to blow a hurri,
cane and an omnious blackness seemed
/ to descend upon everything in view
Pretty soon 1t began to snow, but so
lightly we paid no attention to it
until the wind began to drive the
white flakes into our eyes, ears and
mouths; then we began "cussin' and
urged the horses to a faster gait. We
kept this up for perhaps a half an
hour when an exclamation from Bud
Kendrick brought us to an abrupt halt
We've lost the trail boys" he said
In a subdued voice, as he climbed down
from his horse to make an investiga
tion of the snow-covered ground
This was indeed a serious condition
to find ourselves in, for to be lost on
the range on such a night was q
thing to be dreaded, it meant possibly
death in four or five different forms
After a hurried consultation W,
! agreed to separate to try and hit the
trail before the rapidly descending
snow should completely obiterate al
evidence Of such. II was understood
I'm the event Of any Of us finding tn,
b elusive trail we were to fire off Ou
pistols at regular intervals so as t,
, attract the attention Of the others
It was with a very heavy Heart tina
5 / parted with my comrades on tina
memorable night, for, let alone tn
e very disagreeable fact Of my being los
I I'm the midst Of n rising blizzard. tn
e thought Of the festivities at ThomI
s sons seemed to outweigh all othe
i considerations in my mind and
J. cursed my ill-luck at every step th
horse took.
But pretty soon the rapidly increai
ing storm drove all thoughts Of plea
ure from my mind. and began to TAX
J. a decidedly unpleasant view Of m
D, unenyiable situation Fortunately
had flask Of brandy In my possession
81 and, although / was cold determine
] a