Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1903-02-18
A KnaVe of
Conscience
BY FRANCIS LYNDE.
Copyright 1900, by Francis Lynde.)
CHAPTER XXV.-CoNrrNUEp


A murmur of savage disapproval
ran through the group of determined
ones and there were muttered impre-
cations including Griswold.
"'Tain't no use, Mr.. Griswold," the
spokesman went ON. "We ketched
him in the very act, and he's goin' to
swing if ever last one of us has to
dance on nothin' to pay for it. It's
him or u.s."
Caught him in the act of what?'
demanded Griswold
The spokesman shuffled with his
feet and hung his head. He was the
rlngleader of the malcontents; bur-
ly molder but lately come to Wa
haska, and there had been whispers
pointing to a past of his which would
not bear the light. Griswold remem-
bered these rumors now, and saw
this: that the mans following was a
detail from the more desperate sec
ton of the strikers.
The pause was brief, but being sur
charged with possibilities, seemed
long. At length the man threw up
his head.
Come here and I'll show you," he
said.
Griswold followed him a step aside,
to the Office front and to a breach
in the palings of the high fence close
at hand. Within the breach, and
heaped against the wall of the frame
office building, was pile of chips and
Shavings, and there was a pungent
odor of kerosene in the air. The
man pointed in silence.
You mean to say that he was 90
ing to burn us out?" asked Griswold.
Them fixin's speak for themselves.
don't they?"
"But why?" Griswold demanded.
The big man snorted scornfully.
"'Tain't no use for you to play in
nercent that-a-way, Mr.. Griswold.
You know who he is, and what he is,
and what he's here for"
Whereat Griswold lost his patience
and swore angrily. Have done with
your mysterious bush-beating and
say what's in you," he raped out.
Il don't know the man.
"You don't, Ell? Well, he's a cussed
Pinkerton, that's what he is; and he's
here to make a case against us.
S'pose the works takes fire and burns
up, and he goes on the stand to swear
we done it? Only he amt never
goin' to get the chance. He's goin'
to quit right here and now. You go
away, Mr.. Griswold. There amt no
call for you to be witness"
Who shall say what fierce and re-
lentless temptation assailed this man
who saw his single pursuer thus in
the tolls? He had but to turn his
back and shrug, and say it was no
concern of his, and this man Griffin
the only man of all men in the world
who might send him to wear out his
life in Louisiana chain-gang, would
go to his account, and all danger
would be over-past for one Kenneth
Griswold.
No one save the victim OF such an
onfall of devils battling for his soul
may know what Griswold endured in
that brief moment of hesitation. II
Griffin himself suspected, he made NJ
sign; indeed, he had looked on al
through the colloquy as if the sub.
ject matter of it concerned him not
at all. But now he spoke: three
words to his accuser, and a dozen tc
the man whom the devils were as
,saulting.
You're liar" he said, coolly, tc
the one; and to the other: "Coult
you oblige me with cigar, Mr.. Girls
wold?"
Now, however fiercely the devils Of
temptation had assaulted, Griswolt
had beaten them off; that and more:
he had a plan of an attempt at 8
rescue half-formed, and this reques-
of the man about to be hanged
chimed in with it. He promptly ten
dered the cigar, and the striker who
was pinioning Griffin's right arm me
chemically loosed his hold that the
prisoner might take it.
1t was the moment for the at
tempt, if any there were to be, anc
there could be no more collision be
tween rescuer and captive than might