Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1905-06-16

fOrnSy, SAID 4. capplng the bentufe
by telling him wnat little he knew OF
Tarleton's disposition, n also OF the
Indian-arming plot I had overheard.
Wen dodge the redcoats. never you
fear: we're at our best In that" he re-
Joined, rather carelessly. And as to
the Cherokee upstirring. that's an old
story. The kings men have tried IT
twice and they have not yet caught
Jack Sewer or Jimmie Robertson
a-napping. Ease our mind on that
score, Captain Ireton, and come along
with us, IL you have nothing better to
do. l can promise you a hard living.
and hard fighting enough to keep 1t IN
c~ountenance.'
Az this I was brought down to some
consideration of the present II its de-
mands AS fortunes wheel a
twirled; | had my life to be sure; but
by the having of 1t was made the
basest traitor TO my friend-to Jennifer,
and no whit less to Margery.
Twas out OF any thought that 1
should take the field against the COM
mon enemy. leaving this tangled web
of mystery and misery behind. In
sheerest decency | owed 1T first 10 Jen-
infer to make a swift n frank confess
sion of the ill-concluded tale of happen
ings. That done, / owed it equally to
him and Margery to find some way TO
~ "a LIN AZ 80 AAALA
So / fell back upon my wound for an
excuse, telling the captain that l was
not yet fit to take the ield-whtch was
tru enough. Whereupon he and his
men set me well beyond the danger of
immediate pursuit and we parted com
pany
When / was left alone l had no plan
that reached beyond the days end,
Since to go to Jennifer house by day
light would be to run my neck afresh
into the moose. I saw nothing for IL
u to lie in hiding until nightfall. The
hiding place that promised best was
the old hunting lodge in the forest, and
thitherward / turned my face.
1t was a wise man who said that he
who goes with heavy heart drags heavy
feet as well; but while I live I shall re-
member how hat saying clogged the
path for me that morning, making the
shrub-sweet summer air grow thick
and lifeless as I toiled along. For sober
second thought, and the unnerving re-
action which comes upon the heels of
sharp peril o~verpast, left me
aghast at the coil In which a tricky fate
had ents gled me.
The second thought made plain the
.dispiteous hardness OF 1t all. showing
me howl had reasoned like a boy in
planning for retrieval. Would Jennifer
DCilSNC IL bdlC, tilOuSn Il oAOul SWSdI
1t out word for word on the Holy Evan
gelists? / doubted it; and striving to
see 1t through his eyes. was made to
doubt 1t more. For death should have
my just:fer, and death had played
me false.
AS for setting the midnight marriage
aside, | made sure the lawyer tribe
could find a way, if that were all. But
here there was a loyal daughter of the
to reckon with. Loathing her
bonds, as any true-hearted maiden
must, would Margery consent to have
them broken by the law? / knew we'll
she would not. Though our poor knot
ting of the tie had been little better
than a tragic farce, it lacked nothing
of force to bind the tender conscience
of a woman bred to look upon the
churchly rite as final.
So, twist and turn as / might, the coil
was desperate; and as L strobe on
gloomily, measuring this the first
stage in a pilgrimage / had never
thought to make, a fire OF sullen anger
began to smoke and smolder within me.
and / could find it in my heart to curse
the cruel kindness of my ~rescuers; to
sorrow in my inmost soul that they had
between to make a living ~recreant
of n who would fam have died an
honest nan