Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1903-05-28
DAILY SHORT STORY
The Two Strangers.
GOriginaL.1


tory" said Bill Utter, the scout. Il
never found much danger except from
horse thieves"
Ever met any of emp" inquired
Tom Cunning, drawing his chair closer
and turning his head sidewise to catch
his answer.
"Well, yes. Andy Gwinne and / once
had a brush with some of 'em. One
day after dinner, while we were smok-
ing our pipes and looking up toward
the mountains, two men came down
the slope opposite and made straight
for our camp. The nearer they got to
us the worse they looked. However,
there are a good many people in the
country with lots of good in 'em under
rough outside, and they seemed very
friendly. They said they had their
camp up in the mountains, that they
had seen our camp and as people were
scarce had come over to get a sight
of somebody besides themselves. We
brought out the demijohn and gave 'em
what they wanted to drink, and after
spending an hour with us, during which
they looked mighty carefully over our
stock, they went back in the direction
they came from.
':Andy and were both suspicious OF
'em, especially when we saw the inter
est they took i'll the stock. The horses
weren't picketed, though we had drag
ged logs to make & corral in a circle,
with an opening closed by our tent.
The corral wasn't very high and only
intended for ordinary purposes-that
is, it wouldn't stand 81 stampede. If
the men were horse thieves they had
probably made their visit TO look us
over and see just how we kept the
stock. We had three horses-my mount
and Andy's and Il pack horse for the
tent and supplies. We talked the mat
ter over and concluded that we'd likely
have a visit during the night and had
better picket the horses. After max
ing everything fast we lay down with
our rifles in our hands.
"When we woke up in the morning
the stock was there all right, and we
concluded that we'd made u mistake
about our visitors. We hunted during
the day and in the evening used the
! same camp. What we should have
done was to go as far from it as posi-
BILE. That night we picketed the horses
| again, but didn't sleep on our arms, aS
the soldiers say. though l should think
| weapons would make n very uncom-
| Portable bed. Nevertheless we had 'em
close by and could easily reach 'em.
"All of sudden we were Weakened by
terrible yells and bang. bang. bang! l
| knew in n minute what ii meant; in
| fact, we both did, for we grabbed our
rifles and got outside the tent mighty
| quick. The horses were Snorting in
terror and trying TO break their teth-
ers, but we had tied 'em against q
| stampede and had tied 'em strong.
The consequence was not horse broke
loose. This wasn't what was caleu-
lated on by the men that had tried to
stampede 'em. They made a second
demonstration. and as they didn't start
the horses they came gallOping right
down to the edge of the corral. They
didn't come from the direction they'd
come from the day before, because that
would have been uphill, but from the
rear, which was downhill. l saw a
mounted figure against the sky line
just jumping the corral and fired. The
figure pitched headforemost over the
|
the other side of the corral and tearing
on down the slope. Then Andy caught
sight of another man and put bullet
into him, dropping him off his horse.
which stood stock still.
"Well. we crawled up careful on to
the two men-we heard nothing of any
more-fnding one stone dead and the
other dying.
"'You men, he gasped, go to our
camp up there on the mountain. You'll
find n little gal there bout thirteen
years old Tell her her pap won't come
. to her no more
at was all he could do to get the
words out so that we could understand
them, and he was dead soon after.
"I didn't like the business at all. XIII
ing people isn't to my taste. In the
morning we covered the bodies with
wood and leaves and put stones on tC
'em, then started to find their camp
We hunted n good while, but at last
struck it by smelling smoke. Going in
> the direction from which it came, we
saw couple of tents with fire before
'em and a little girl in the act of hang
ing coffee boiler over it.
1.-The hardest job ever had to do was
to tell her we'd killed her father. She
r sort of wilted under it, as though
, bIighted by one of those hot blasts that
2 come out of volcano. She was nice
5 little thing, nothing like the daughter
of a horse thief. Indeed she didn't
4 know her fathers business. Hel
: mother had died several years before
: and since that time her father haC
: gone downhilI, though she had no sus
picion that he had got to horse steal
ing, and 1 didn't tell her. 1 said II
was all q mistake"
e what became of the galT' inquired
y Tom Cunning.
+ ANDY and 1 Clipped in and sent hel
n east to school,
y There yetf'
e mo: she's been out year. She's Il