Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1907-11-21

er when a breath of wind blew them
out like candles, and day broke, or,
rather, burst, like a shell.
Meanwhile Tom had struck a creek,
Waded a mile in it to destroy the scent,
Waded within a stones throw Of Jar
mans hut, turned tail in a panic and
waded back, and miles farther, in the
opposite direction. In the creek also
he slaked his thirst and layed his
wounds. He had turned his back on
1T when the sun rose. And toward the
rising sun he ran and ran until there
was a great belt of blue beneath it in
the Sky, then hid for the day in a tiny
9lump of trees in the midst of an open
plain.
Here he slept for hours, yet dreamed
but one dream-of baying dogs and
cantering hoofs. When he awoke, the
first sound was actually audible, but
far away and growing fainter. 1t pass
ed altogether, and he fell asleep again.
Awaking a second time, he found the
stars back in the sky, but as vet no
moon. And Tom was deadly faint for
lack of food.
Also his wounds were so stiff that he
could scarcely stir, every movement
causing him pain. Yet he struggled up
and tottered east, with those five fixed
stars shining feebly upon his wan
right cheek and haggard profile.
How long this continued Tom could
never tell. 1t might have been hours
later OF only minutes that seemed like
hours when the climax came. All he
ever knew was that his head was by
this time very light, and that the moor
was no higher than the trees when it
shone upon the stray wether bleating
piteously In his path, which was to
stand out terribly in his mind ever
after. Yet up to that moment a forty
hours fast had been broken but once
with sandwiches. 1t was either this or
lingering death.
The moon won clear of the trees. 1t
shone into the glutted eyes and on the
blood caked mouth and fingers of as
desperate and abandoned a young con-
vict as the settlement contained.
He pushed on 10Y with q new and
dreadful energy. He thought he smelt
the sea. The country, however, was
still we'll timbered, and instinctively
rather than with conscious %precaution
the fugitive made his line where the
trees were thickest. He was now
steering jealousy by the moon, with
his head thrown farther back the high
Ell it sailed. Thus it was that a little
later he tripped and staggered without
seeing what it was that had caught his
foot, but it felt peculiar, and after a
moment he turned round, stood still
and went back.
It was the dead body of a man.
The body had not a rag upon it.
Tom knelt to examine it by the
moonlight, and a cold thrill ran down
him, which he resented when he had
time to think. 1t showed there was
something human in him yet.
The body was that of a very swarthy
man, with wonderful white teeth, upon
which the moon shone and glistened in
the ghastliest manner, and pierced
ears, from which the earrings had
been brutally torn, and a chapfallen
blue chin. Tom thought the man had
not been many hours dead. What
puzzled him al the apparent absence
of a mortal wound where the other
evidences Of foul play were so glar-
ing. When found, however, the wounds
itself puzzled him much more. 1t was
at the back of the sunburnt neck and
might have been a bullet wound, but
Tom had never seen n before, nor
would he have expected a bullet to
drill q hole so clean and round.
He now behaved as though he had
been tripping over murdered men all
his life. He had not only recovered
his composure; he was able to glory in
it as q sign that his heart was dead
after all and SO past bleeding for any
thing or anybody any more. At this
moment he raised his eyes. and his
new found conposure was at an end.
A light flashed through the trees into
his eyes-a tongue of fame from some
campfire.
Tom listened. No voices reached his
ears ave those Of the nocturnal bush.
The fire was farther of than he had
thought.
He got up and first walked, then
crept toward the light. The colony
was infested with bands Of bushrang-
ers. What If here were one and this
corpse their handiwork7 Now Tom
thought Of it. one particular and most
notorious band had been d%epredating
this very part Of the country ever since
the new year. He had heard envious
reports of the villains in the convicts'
huts at Castle Sullivan. and especially
had he heard OF their terrible italian
chief. said to be IN outlawed brigand
come to seek fresh fortunes In New
South Wales. OF the merciless ferocity
of this free alien the most horrifying
stories were aloat. Yet the worst OF
these but feebly expressed one who
shot men from behind. stripped their
corpses and tore the very rings from
their ears.
Tom crept near the fire in q personal
fright c~uriously exh~ilarating in Its In
He might almost have been a
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