Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1903-10-03

dwyIlt; but SO Il was, and I marched
with him as c~ontentedly and as al In
my mind as ever ] accompanied man.
For one thing, I had met him twice at
sword point and been beaten both
times. so / held him In much respect;
and. again, I knew enough OF his char
acter from his old acquaintances to be
sure hat while our interests jumped
together. his hand would never be
turned against me. Further. i was des-
perate to prevent mischief happening
to my friends, and would have ven
tured upon no small danger to inter-
cept the billet, which i was we'll as
sured my uncle would dispatch at the
earliest possible moment. So l crossed
over to him and peeped over his shout
der at the pathway.
There iss no sign of man or horse
passing said he, hearing the crunch
of my feet on the snowy grass. But
he will come, yes, he will come"
What makes you so certain?"
For the same reason, l am sure that
some n has already spoken to you"
returned Wild John. In his stiff, formed
English; that 1t ISIS good to start at
once before the Gwylliaid Cochion be-
gin once more to move about the coun-
try"
/ laughed to see how keenly he
summed up things, and he continued:
How much powder and ball ISIS with
your"
Little enough" 1 answered; about
four charges. / thought 1t would be
enough for the road"
Little indeed" said he; this gun ISIS
loaded, and 1 have enough to load II
once again. That ISIS ALL"
Never mind" said /. Plenty to
knock the mans horse from under
him."
Ieuan turned his head and barred his
strong white teeth In a contemptuous
grin. And 10 You think" said he,
land do you think we shall spend pow
der on the job? And there ISIS so little
with us. Not likely"
What will you do?" / asked.
II will show you," he returned; "and
1t ISIS time to be about 1t, too"
He went bach through the thicket,
crossed the main road twenty yards be-
low the fork, n marched in the direc-
ton Of Nant-y-Bryn. l followed like
his shadow, and 200 yards or more from
the thicket he stopped. We had been
moving Iarallel with the road, but five
or six yards from 1t, out on the wide,
grassy margin. At the place where we
stood, the roadbed for some ten or
twelve yards was formed by a smooth
sheet of living rock. Such strips are
ommon enough in all that countryside.
where the rock crops up in every place;
and in wet or slippery weather they de-
nam very wary riding. But, in spite
Of the snow and frost, the roads were
now not slippery, for the skin of snow
had fallen on clean, hard, dry earth,
M 1t had never melted, nor was It
deep enough to clog a horse or ball I'M
der his feet.
Ieuan looked round, then went with
hasty stride to a black cash In the
moor, where n turf pit had been opened.
Before the frost came on il had been
filed with water almost to the brim,
n a couple of blows from his heavy
heel shattered the ice. He whipped off
his hat and filled it with drak water
which came yelling up then ran swift
ly to the road and dashed it on the
broad riband of smooth rock.
l FASTENED to help him. Bvery hatful
of water as it was flung down spread
like a blot, then stood a hard. black
plate of ice. ON so bitter q night it
froze almost as 1t fell, and within a
quarter of an hour we had n band of
ice as hard as iron and catching the
moon like a mirror.
We wrung our hats as dry as we
could, then buffeted our hands round
u waists TO get the life back into the
numbed fingers.
CONTINUED Next Week.)