Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1902-08-04

| posure, knew the wild band of frontier
| spirits that usually journeyed with
| him when he was "out on business"
He had no reason to doubt but that
| the manager would arrive in town
Monday and would Immediately search
| for him.
81 may die" he muttered, "but she's
coming"
| His last act Sunday before he went
to bed was to saw off the barrel of a
shotgun and load the weapon with a
curious mixture of slugs. He was not
an expert with firearms; he never car
ried a gun and on a test shot he
probably would have missed the side
of barn as quickly as the next man,
but he kept thinking of the girl, and
the more he thought the more method
ical his preparations.
| He awoke the next morning to find
himself besieged. The store manager
| from and Bluff had arrived with half
a dozen cowboys prepared for any kind
of ruthless sport. They shot the upper
half of his shack full Of holes without
| arousing the editor to a reply, and then
they announced that they intended to
hold him a prisoner there until 1890,
at which time they would rush the
shack, set it on fire and shoot him
down when he came out. He heard the
declaration. He could see them, could
!, T. tic
He sat behind a barricade with the
shotgun across his lap. He was most
| carefully dressed and extraordinarily
calm for man who had been under
fire for an hour or more. He drew
at his pipe with great composure, and
studied the time ON the face of the
little alarm clock that stood on a table
near him. The cowboys left two of
their number on guard, and rode up
the street after liquor. No one inter.
fered with them. The fact that they
We're from Sand Bluff made their word
law in the lesser communities. Many
grim jest they passed on the final
fate of the editor, and many an assur-
ance did the store manager give that
no "blasted friend of the Indian could
live here"
STILL the editor held the fort through
the morning, and the cowboys toyed
with him as terrier sometimes fools
with the mouse it means to kill.
At noon a big cloud of dust rose on
the trail from Sand Bluff. 1t was the
stage coming il. One of the editors
peepholes gave him such command of
the street that he could see the ap-
proach of the stage. He noted that
rs 1t was travelling it should reach the
postofiice in about fifteen minutes, real
ly ahead of time. He got up, shook
himself, walked to the back room,
looked at cher" picture once, and then
carefully loosened the fastenings of
his front door. He left the door so
that it could be instantly swung back.
Another glance out of the peephole
showed him the stage was entering the
town. 1t banged and ratified down the
way to the postoffice, halted, and the
first passenger out was tall, 1.-THE
young woman of twenty-three or four.
The editor saw her ask questions of
bystanders, noticed their curious ges-
lures toward his place, saw her start
for it.
The cowboys, headed by the store
manager, were in front of his Office,
preparing for their final charge. He
swung back his door quickly, stepped
out into the sunshine, swung up his
gun, and before his foes realized what
he was doing, so suddenly had he
acted, gave the store manager and one
of his companions the charges of his
weapon. They fell from their saddles,
the others fled with a volley of shots
for parting.
The editor staggered little, then
made for the girl. She held out her
arms to him, he his hands to her.
"Thats all yours Kate" he said,
with a little gasp in his throat. Il
waited flor you, Kate"
And then he was dead at her feet
II. T. Cleveland, in the Chicago Record
Herald.
Moving Mountain.