Elk City mining news. (Elk City, Idaho) 1903-1913, 1906-07-21
CHAPTER XIX.


long since given up as dead. and the
story of their desperate escape had be-
come indlstinct to the general public
mind Now that they had been captured
III remarkable manner. popular belief
invested them with all sorts of strange
surroundings. They had been-accord-
Ing to report-kings over savage island
ers chiefs of lawless and ferocious pi
rates. respectable married men in Java.
merchants in Singa pore, and swindlers
In Hongkong. Their adventures had
been dramatized at a theater, and the
popular novelist of that day was engag-
ed in a work descriptive of their won
drous fortunes.
John Rex, the ringeader. was related.
1t was said to noble family. He had
every prospect of being satisfactorily
hanged, however, for even the most out
spoken admirers of his skill and courage
could not but admit that he had COM
mitted an offense which was death by
the law. The already crowded prison
was recrammed with half a dozen life
sentence men, brought up from Port
Arthur to identify the prisoners. Among
torious Dawes"
This statement gave fresh food for
recollection and invention. 1t was re-
membered that ''the notorious Dawes"
was the absconder who had been brought
away by Captain Frere, and who owed
such fettered life he possessed to the
fact that he had assisted Captain Frere
to make the wonderful boat in which
the marooned party escaped. 1t was
remembered, also. how sullen and morose
he had been on his trial five years before,
and how he had laughed when the com
mutation of his death sentence was
nounced to him.
Miss Sylvia Vickers also received an
additional share of public attention. Her
romantic rescue by the heroic Frere who
was shortly to reap the reward of his de-
votion in the good old fashion, made her
almost as famous as the villain Dawes,
or his confederate monster, John Rex.
1t was reported that she was to give evil
dence on the trial, together with her
affianced husband. they being the only
two living witnesses who could speak
to the facts of the mutiny. 1t was re-
ported, also. that her lover was, nat
urally, most anxious that she should not
give evidence, she was affected deep
ly by the Illness consequent on the suf-
fering she had undergone, and in a
state of pitiabe mental confusion as to
the whole business. These reports caus-
ed the court. on the day of the trial,
the various particulars of the marvellous
history of this double escape were de-
tailed, the excitement grew more intense.
The aspect of the four heavily iron pris-
oners caused sensation which. in that
city of the ironed. was quite novel; and
bets were offered and taken as to the
line of defense which they would adopt.
Mr.. Meekin sitting in the body of the
court, felt his religious prejudices sadly
shocked by a sight of John Rex. "a per-
feet wild beast, my dear Miss Vickers, -
he said, returning. in a pause during the
examination of the convicts who had
been brought to identify the prisoner, to
the little room where Sylvia and her
father were waiting. "He has quite a
tigerish look about him."
Poor man. said Sylvia, with shud-
der.
The major tapped his fingers impa-
tiently. "Come here. Poppet," he said
land look through this door. You can
see them from here. and if you do not
recognize any of them, l can't see what
is the use of putting you in the box"
The raised dock was just opposite to
the door of the room in which they were
sitting, and the four manacled men, each
with an armed warder behind him, were
visible above the heads of TIL ecrowd.
relief; 81 can't recognize them at all"
AS she was turning from the door,
voice from the witness box behind hel
made her suddenly pale, and pause tC
look again. The court Itself appeared, a
that moment, affected, for a murmur raj
through it., and some official cried, Isl
lencev
The notorious criminal, Rufus Dawes
the desperate of Port Arthur the wild
beast whom the newspapers had judged
not fit to live, had just entered the wit
ness box. He was a man of thirty, il
the prime of life, with a torso whose
muscular grandeur not even the lift
ting yellow jacket could altogether con
ceal, with strong, embrowned and nerv
Gus hands, and upright carriage, and
pair of fierce black eyes that roamet
over the court hungrily.
Not all the weight of the double iron
swaying from the leathern thong aroun,
his massive loins. could mar that ele
Rance of attitude which comes only iron
perfect muscular development. Not al
the frowning faces bent upon him coul
frown an accent of respect into the con
temptuous tones In which he answers
to his name "Rufus Dawes, prisoner o
the crown"
"Come away, my darling" said Wick
ers. alarmed at his daughters blanche
face and eager eyes.
ln INN or