Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1901-04-08
CHAPTER XIII.

Gate City had found a hero and
wished to worship him, but its hero
proved as intractable as he was reticent.
For three days after the capture Of New
ms the community was agog with ru
NOR and excitement. To begin with, the
captive chad the cheek of a brass mon
key" said the sheriff, and swore stout
~ that he was a wronged and injured
man. So far from being a prisoner he
should be on pinnacle, rewarded by
generous and grateful government for
important services rendered. Who but
he had followed and found the renegade
major and wrested from him full con-
fession and the key of the safe? The lat
ter in turn had been forcibly wrested
from him through the malevolent jeal
ousy of that upstart engineer, but new
er, said Nevins, would he now betray
Burleigh's hiding place or impart his
confession until full reparation was
made for the wrongs and indignities
heaped upon him. The sheriff was fair
ly dazed.
"Who were all the fellows you had
with you," he demanded, "if they
weren' It some OF Hank BirdsalI's crowd,
come there to raid the quartermaster s
depot?''
Nevins' indignation was fine to see.
He denied all knowledge of the presence
of any such. He demanded an inter
view with Folsom. He utterly refused
at first to accord one to his wife, as
Naomi Fletcher, Folsom s housekeeper,
was now understood to be. That wom
an was in league with his enemies, he
swore. That woman wrote and babe
him come and then had Folsom and
Loring and other armed men there to
pounce upon him. Folsom came and
had few words with him, but told
him bluntly that he wouldn't believe
his preposterous story and would have
nothing to do with him until he with
drew the outrageous accusations against
both his wife and Loring.
"That woman's million times too
good for you,'' said Folsom.
Then Nevins concluded he must have
talk with Loring, and on his message
being conveyed that officer, the bearer,
was hidden to say that Mr.. Loring re-
fused to have anything whatever to do
with him, whereat the captive ex-cap-
tain ground his teeth with rage and
made the jailyard ring with maledio-
tiOn.
Events succeeded each other with
marvellous rapidity. Folsom visit was
early the morning after the capture, and
by noon he was bowling along on 70
mile ride to the ranch in the Laramie
valley, hurried thither by the news that
Birdsall's gang had run off many of his
SON. s best horses and that Hal Folsom
himself was missing.
Loring galloped by the side Of the
ambulance several miles, comforting
with the old frontiersman all the way,
then turned back to resume his work at
the depot. Eagerly he wired dispatches
to the general, which were forwarded
from Cheyenne to the Platte, telling of
his important capture, smiling quietly
as he wrote.
Had he not promised to produce the
mysterious Newhall himself? Admira-
BILE service, indeed, had the young en-
gineer rendered. The testimony of Fol-
som, Loring, Jimmy Peters and one or
two wakeful citizens all proved that
there must have been a dozen of Bird
Sails gang in town that night.
There could be only one explanation,
for a price was on the head of every
man. They had come with "NewhaIl"