The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1904-04-22


gone home after the storm If something
bad wasn't the matter"
"But nothing-nothing that bad
could have happened. They haven't
found-any-anythi
"But why hasn't he come back.
child?'
well, he's lying hurt somewhere,
that's ALL
'"Then why haven't they found him %
II don't care" she cried and choked
with the words and tossed her DISNEY
eled hair from her temples, 'it isn't
true! Helen won't believe it. Why
should l? It's only a few hours since
ne was right here in our yard talking
to US all. l won't believe it till they've
searched every stick and stone of Six
Crossroads and found him."
1T wasn't the Crossroads" said
the old gentleman, pushing the table
away and relaxing his limbs Gu the
sofa. "They probably didn't have any
thing to do with it. We thought they
had at first, but everybody's about
come to believe it was those two fell
lows that he had arrested yesterday"
1T wasn't the Crossroads echoed
Minnie, and she began to tremble vio-
lently. Haven't they been out there
yetT'
what use? They are out of il, and
they can thank God they are"
'They are pot!' she cried, very much
agttated. They did it. 1t was the
White Caps. We saw them, Helen
and l."
The judge got upon his feet with an
oath. He had not sworn for years I'M
til that morning whats this?' he
said sharply.
II ought to have told you before, but
we were so frightened, and-and you
went off in such a rush after Mr.. Wiley
was here. l never dreamed everybody
wouldn't know it was the Crossroads;
that they would think of any one else
And 1 looked for the scarecrow as soon
as it was light, and it was away off
from where we saw them and wasn't
blown down at all; and Helen saw
them in the field besides; saw all Of
them
He interrupted her. what do you
mean? Try to tell me about it quietly.
child" He laid his hand on her Shout
der
She told him breathlessly what she
and Helen had seen, and he grew more
and more visibly perturbed and I'M
easy, biting his cigar to pieces and
groaning at intervals. When she had
Rnic In inly
about the room, with his hands thrust
deep in his coat pockets, and then,
charging her to repeat the story to no
one, left the house and, forgetting his
fatigue, rapidly crossed the fields to
the point where the bizarre figures of
the night had shown themselves to the
two girls at the window.
The soft ground had been trampled
by many feet. The boot prints pointed
20 the northeast. He traced them back
ward to the southwest through the
field and saw where they had come
from near the road, going northeast;
then, returning, he climbed the fence
and followed them northward through
the next field. From there the next field
to the north, lying beyond the road that
was a continuation of Main street,
stretched to the railroad embankment.
The track, ruggedly defined in tram
pied loan and muddy furrow, bent in
O direction which indicated that its
terminus might be the switch where
the empty cars had stood last night
waiting for the 1 o'clock freight Though
no bod FRO, In1 in, w
places by the searching parties, he felt
sure of the direction taken by the
Crossroads men, and he perceived that
the searchers had mistaken the tracks
he followed for those of earlier parties
in the hunt. On the embankment he
saw a number of men walking west
and examining the ground on each side
and a long line of people following
them out from town. He stopped. He
held the fate of Six Crossroads in his
hand, and he knew it.
The men on the embankment were
walking slowly, bending far over, their
eyes fixed on the ground. Suddenly
one of them stood erect and tossed his
arms in the air and shouted loudly.
Other men ran to him, and another far
down the track repeated the shout and
the gesture to another far in his rear.
This man took it up and shouted and
waved to fourth man, and so they
passed the signal back to town. There
came almost Immediately three long.
loud whistles from mill near the sta
ton, and the embankment grew black
with people pouring out from town,
while the searchers came running from
the fields and woods and underbrush
on both sides of the railway.
Briscoe began to walk on toward the
embankment.
The track lay level and straight, not
dimming in the middle distances. the
rails converging to points both north
west and southeast in the clean washed
air like examples of perspective in a
child's drawing book. About seventy
miles to the west and north lay Rouen.
In the same direction, nearly six miles
from where the signal was given, the
track was crossed by a road leading
directly south to Six Crossroads.
The embankment had been newly
ballasted with sand. What had been
discovered was broad brown stain in
the sand on the south slope near the
top. There were smaller stains above
and below, none beyond it to left or
right, and there were many deep foot
prints in the sand Men were exam
lining the place eXcitedly, talking and
gesticulating. 1t was Lige Willetts
who had found it. His horse was
tethered to fence near by at the end
of lane through cornfield. Jared
Wiley, the deputy sheriff, was talking
to group near the stain, explaining.
"You see, them two must have
knowed about the 1 o'clock freight and