Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1906-07-04

Iuaue an emu. MY Detter judgment
says you were all kinds of somebody
for not clinching the nail when you had
il SO well driven home And vet
can't help admiring your exalted IA
naticism. I do s1ove consistency, and
the courage of it But tell me, if you
can, how far these fair-fighting seru-
pies of yours go. You have made it
perfectly plain that if a thief would
steal your pocketbook, you would suf-
fer loss before you'd compromise with
him to. get it back. But suppose you
should catch him at it: would you feel
compelled to call policeman-o
would you"
h He anticipated her.
I ."You are doing me an injustice on
the other. side, now. I'll fight as furi-
ously as you like. All ask is to be
given weapon that won't bloody my
hands,
h Good" she said approvingly. 81
think, have found the weapon, but
it's desperate, desperate! And O.
David. you've got to have cool head
and "a steady hand when you use it.
~ you haven't, it will kill everybody
within the swing of it-everybody but
the man you are trying to reach.Pa
II Draw it and let me feel it's edge"
be said shortly.
4 ;Her chair was close beside the low
SWING hammock. She bent to his ear
and. whispered single sentence. For
a. minute or two he sat motionless,
! Weighing and balancing the chance of
success against the swiftly multiplying
difficulties and hazards.
you call it Desperate he said at
length, "if there is bigger word il.
the language, you ought to find and
use it. The risk is that of forlorn
hope: not so much for me, perhaps,
as for the innocent-or at least
acknowledgements I'll have to en-
list
She nodded.
t"That is true. But how much is
your railroad worth?'
ct is bonded for fifty millions first,
and twenty millions second mortgage"
"Well, seventy millions are worth
fighting for: worth a very considera-
Bile risk. / should say"
eyes" And after another thought
full interval: ''How did you come to
think of it?''
at grew out of a bit of talk with
the man who will have put the apex
on our pyramid after we have done
our part
"Will he stand by us? If he doesn't,
we shall all be no better than dead
men the morning after the fact
She clasped her hands tightly over
her knee, and said:
THAT is one of the chances we must
take, David; one of the many. But it
is the last of the bridges to be crossed,
and there are lots of them in between.
Are the details possible? That was
the part I couldn't go into by myself"
He took other minutes for reflection.
Il can't tell" he said doubtfully. "If
+ could only know how much time
we have"
Her eyes grew luminous.
"David, what would you do without
me?'' she asked Tomorrow night
in Stephen Hawks Office in CASTOR,
you will lose your railroad. MacFar-
lane is there, or if he isn't, he'll be
there in the morning. Bucks, Guilford
and Hawk will go down from here to-
morrow evening; and the Overland
people are to come up from Midland
City to meet them"
There was awe undisguised in the
look he gave her, and it crept into his
voice when he said:
''Portia, are you really a flesh-%nd-
blood wOman?'
She smiled.
| Meaning that your ancestors would
have burned me for a witch? Per-
haps they would: 1 think quite likely
they burned women who made better
martyrs. But I didn't have to call
in Flibbertigibbet. The programme is
al carefully guarded secret, to be sure;
bit it is known-it had to be known
Ito number of people outside of our
friends the enemy. You've heard the
story of the inventor and his secret,
haven't your"
mo"
i"Well, the man had invented some
thing, and he told the secret of it
to his son. After little the son want
ed to tell it to a friend. The old man
said, Hold on: I know it-that's one
holding up one finger-'you know i.
that's eleven'-holding up another
finger besides the first; and now if you
tell this other fellow, that'll be one
hundred and eleven-holding up three
fingers. That is the case with this
programme. One of the one hundred
AID eleven-he is person high up
in the management of the Overland
Short Line-dropped a few words in
my hearing and picked them up.
That's ALL" -.
1T is fearfully short-the time, 1
mean he said after another pause.
I'VE can't count on any help from
any one in authority. Guilford's
broom has swept the high-salaried of
neial corners clean. But the wage
people are mutinous and ripe for any