Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1903-10-01

0wyllt; but SO It was, and marched
with him as contentedly and az easy in
my mind as ever accompanied man.
For one thing. I had met him twice at
sword point and been beaten both
times, 80 held him In much respect;
and, again. knew enough Of his char
acter from his old acQuaintances to be
sure that while our interests Jumped
together, hts hand would never be
turned against me. Further, I was des-
perate to prevent mischief happening
to my friends, and would have ven
4 cept the billet, which was we'll as
sured my uncle would dispatch at the
earliest possible moment. So crossed
over to him and peeped over his shoul-
der at the pathway.
/ There ISIS 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, am sure that
some one has already spoken to you,' =
English; that 1t iss 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 iss with
your"
Little enough" answered; about
four charges. 1 thought 1t would be
enough for the road
Little indeed said he; this gun iss
loaded, and have enough to load IT
once again. That iss all"
Never mind" said I. Plenty to
knock the mans horse from under
him."
Io,,,, +,,r,ad III, l,.oa 49,, .o,o7 ito
strong white teeth in contemptuous
grin. ".AnG do you think" said he.
"and do YOU think we shall spend pow
der on the job? And there iss so little
with US. Not likely"
What will you do?" asked.
II will show YOU" he returned: and
it ISIS time to be about it, too
He went back through the thicket
crossed the main road twenty yards be-
low the fork, and marched in the direc-
tion Of Nant-y-Bryn I followed like
his shadow and 200 yards or more from
the thicket he stopped. We had been
moving Parallel with the road, but Ave
/ or six yards from it, out on the wide,
grassy margin. AT the place where we
twelve yards was formed by smooth
sheet of living rock. Such strips are
common enough In all that countryside.
whore the rock crops up in every place;
and in wet or slippery weather they de-
mand 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,
and 1t had never melted, nor was 1t
deep enough to clog horse or ball un-
der his feet.
Ieuan looked round, then went with
hasty stride to black cash In the
moor, Whore a turf pit had been opened.
Before the frost came on 1t had been
filled with water almost to the brim,
and couple of blows from his heavy
heel shattered the ice. He whipped off
his hat and filled 1t with drak water
which came welling up, then ran swift
ly to the road and dashed 1T on the
broad riband of smooth rock.
| FASTENED to help him. Every hatful
of water es 1T was flung down spread
like a blot, then stood hard, black
plate Of ice. On so bitter a night il
froze almost as 1t fell, and within a
quarter Of an hour we had band of
ice as hard as iron and catching the
moon like mirror.
We wrung our hats as dry as we
could, then buffeted our hands round
our waists 10 get the life back into the
numbed fingers.
CONTINUED Next Week)