The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1903-09-18
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IN BY Grace Mac GOWan Cooke. "
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
MACE TALENT turned his head
lxl painfully and looked Through the
one small window He had been most
unkindly placed, so that the effort to
do this made his bonds cut into the
flesh; but when your mortal foe has
bound you hand and foot and left you
In blockaded still, while he goes down
to "the settlement" to show himself,
SO that when he later murders you,
with all sorts of reconcile tortures,
there may be an alibi ready prepared;
when all this is the case, the difficulty
you may have in looking through a
two-by-three-foot window, and even
the CALLING of bonds which threaten to
break through the skin, are mere de-
tails in your menu of suffering.
It was intolerab4y hot in the little
shack, even up there among the bal
sans, in the deep glen which held the
illicit still, for before Fain Bushares
left he had fastened the window down
tight. Mace thought of Hester Bush
ares, Fain's sister, whom he had ex-
pected to marry this month The cabin
was done, the preacher bespoke, and
they were to have wed, as the noun
tain phrase goes, at the next quarterly,
now near at hand. He believed in his
soul that this was the cause of Fain' s
rancor against him. The reason given
by his tormentor when he made those
bonds secure was that he, Mace, was
q spy and inforner, planning to lead
the revenuers to Sutton's still, in which
he now lay bound, awaiting his death.
He had been brought to the place by
q message purpOrting to come from
Hester-suddenly he wondered if Hes
ter was in the plot. He had thought
he heard her voice as he neared the
shack that morning-or had she per-
haps been decoyed there in the same
manner by false message from him.
self? (They often met in this way,
since the 3ushares were opposed to the
marriage).
Fain had said when he told Mace
what fate awaited him that he would
have Hester there to see her sweet
heart killed-he had made no state
ment as to whether or no she would
come willingly to the spectacle.
Mace imagined that he could hear
In the solemn silence the noise of the
crowd far below him at the settle
ment, where celebration was going
on. All at once he became aware that
what he had taken for this sound was
a swooping, scraping noise on the roof
Of the shack; and as he painfully
strained his gaze toward the window
q mans head appeared there, an arm
reached down from above, and some
body called cheerfully, "Hullo! Air
ye all dead in there?"
Mace smiled grimly to think how
near this was the truth. Fain had not
thought worth while to gag him, since,
In that lonely place, he might have
yelled himself hoarse and none been
the wiser. Nav" he called, mot ad-
zactly dead-just snoozin'. Come in,
stranger-how'd We get on the roof"
The newcomer finally made entrance
through the window by prying it open
with his clasp knife and dropping in
from the caves. He was a lean, dap
per fellow, with a shrewd, kindly face.
He looked Mace over curiously.
Usually sleep that way?" he queried
finally.
mot n'rally,'" Mace answered him.
hits new plan ben tryin' lately
and l don't like it. Ease me up a
leetle, will We, and we'll talk it over"
He was still associating this man with
Fain Bushares, still full of suspicion
that this was trick of Fain's to pro-
long his torture
The newcomer skillfully unraveled
the knots at Mace's wrists and Mace,
sitting up, had leisure to observe how
strangely his visitor was dressed. His
hair was of smooth drab, plastered
down in a scallop upon his forehead
like that of the typical country beau;
Its sleek oiliness had in a measure re-
sisted even the disarranging effect of
his hanging head downward and
scrambling through the window. His
collar, high, smooth and very white,
suggested strip of celluloid (probably
1t was of that VARIETY; his tie was
damboyant; his black coat, somewhat
worn and frayed, was Prince Albert,
and he wore it with buff Marseilles
vest. The seemliness of this attire ter
minated abruptly in what Mace at first
took to be pair of long, slim, bare
legs, and what he now saw to be some
what soiled tleshings.
The two men stared at each other:
the peril of Talents position we'll nigh
faded from his mind in the wonder of
this apparition. ''Wall, I'll be Jig
gered!" he calculated finally. us that
the way you usually dress for COM
pany?"
The raking, swooping sound now
once more attacked the roof. my
names HUBBARD the visitor replied
rather at random. That's the Bird o.
=,