Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1902-01-25

X IuduG SAC5I1uS GOIlltC11g III $3.50
but the ominous silence with which
Blue Duck received theremark chill
! ed him, and he shortly withdrew
from the game. A child and g
! child's love prevailed in Blue Duck,
| whatever its morals we're. Ed fin
ished his sport with the children
and returned to the game and vic
! tory. What the Flat Greek gentle
man had said was repeated to him. i
You have five minutes to start
/ for home, said Ed, looking at him
! where he stood BY. the stove. Men
/ who were standing about him quiet
Ily drew off. Flat Greek understood
and departed, and the offender new
er returned to the town. He valued
his own life too highly to face Blue
Ducks guardian again.
One bitter cold afternoon, with a.
dazzling sun in the sky, frost SPAR
kles binding the eyes and white on
the earth from Hudson bay to the
Cheyenne, there came cry down
the main street Of Blue Duck:
"Child lostY
The wall, more than cry, was
from the lips of mother, the wife
of the banker, and the child lost was
| the little girl to whom Gentleman
Ed had given his heart. She had
been sent out to play at noon, and,
learning that Ed had gone to Flat
Greek on business, she had parted
from her companions and started
over the prairie wastes to meet him.
coming home. The other children
had not given the warning until an
hour or two later.
Fifty men went out on the Flat
Greek trail in fifteen minutes, but
with all their riding and searching.
they found no trace of the child.
The snow was drifting just enough
to hide baby footprints, and the
cold was intense. When "Gentle-
man" Ed arrived and they told him,
he gave out a cry like that Of the
cougar when struck to the heart.
Now the father and mother were at
his feet begging him to find. their
child out in the wastes, pleading
and beseeching. He gave them no
reminder Of the past. He put them
aside, called for his horse and two
hounds, singularly named Prince
and Pauper He took up the trail
just where the little one had left her
playmates, and he rode out into the
night alone save for the dogs.
Hell not come back without
her." said Blue Duck and waited I'M
til dawn and then, failing Of hear
ing from him, spread itself out like
a great fan on the Flat Creek trail
and took up the search itself.
To and fro in the wind and the
cold rode the men of Blue Duck
and far into the morning. Away
south Of the trail they heard the
long wall of troubled hound, and
they rode toward the cry like saw
ages. They came to an old wallow
which the snow had not quite filed
up, and down in its depths was the
body of dead horse, and between
its legs and pressed close to its belly
vas the stiff form Of man, and on
top of this man were two crouching
hounds, calling one after the other
that their master was riding with
death and help must come-must
come speedily.
The hounds leaped from their
perch, and the searchers dragged
"Gentleman" Ed from the horse,
and there, buried deep in the snow,
warm and coy, half awake and half
asleep, was the child, safe but for
face frosting. What a shout went
up, and how the men sped back to
Blue Duck with Ed, in whom there
was no sign Of life! What work was
done that afternoon and night no
one but those there will ever know,
but by evening the gambler opened
his eyes, and we knew that he was
safe. Men fell on each other and
cried, while the banker sobbed with
his head on Eds breast, and the
mother stood by and blessed him.
The child was home asleep, but lat
er she was to sing the praises of her
hero and the hounds.
When Ed started on his search,
the hounds revealed at once that the
child had wandered from the trail.
They took him straight to the wal
low into which she had plunged
and where she was freezing to
death. His horse broke his leg in
fall, and Ed went down with him
with twisted ankle, but he killed
the animal, opened its hide, tucked
the child in, laid himself over her
and waited for death, certain,
though, that Blue Duck would come