The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-11-02

who it was?''
Didn't dun hear nor see nuthin','' she
replied.
| There was only one room in the cabin
Lying on the floor under the rude bed
stead, with his gun beside him, was the
man. We hauled him outdoors without
resistance. The wife on the steps did
not rise up nor cease to puff. She did
not look at us nor at him. The man was
a squatter. perhaps twenty-five years
old. He was white trash" He was
bow-backed and loose-jointed and long
haired. He had not enlisted, and the
conscript officers had failed to find him.
Yes the girl-wCman who sat there was
his wife, and as we looked at him over a
child on the bed underneath which we
had found him set UP feeble wall. The
mother went in and brought it out. 1t
was a year or so old, and it had been
born a cripple. She gave it to nurse
and crooned as she rocked it to and fro,
but she did not take her pipe from her
mouth.
Why ask the man who stood before
us if he had fired the shot that sent
one of our comrades to a grave beside
the highway? There was the dirt of
the cornf1eld on his knees; there was
the freshly-burned powder in the
muzzle of his rifle; there was the fact
that he was hiding
Bring a rope!"
The man leaned up against an old
cherry tree and looked at wife and
baby. I was looking into his face all
the time 1t was emotionless and I'M
readable Not one human sentiment
swept over it. He simply stared and
stared and stared. The two must nave
passed hours on that doorstep or
within the poverty-stricken cabin with
ont a word to each other-without
looking at each other. I expected to
see the man start when the trooper
brought the rope. and When the rest
of the column dismounted ana came
a hanPinp
a movement of the lips. Not change
of gaze. Not the culver of an eyeiash.
1t was genuine 1mpertufpaplilty
Had the infant died right there in It's
mothers arms he would not have
The baby had been nursed and
crooned to sleep. The woman sun
held it. Her pipe had been smoked
ont She still retained it in her black
| teeth. AS the free end of the rope
vas thrown over the limb of another
tree not far away the woman seemed
| to look at her husband for the first
| time, and said:
Jed didn't l tell you-uh SO
Hes bushwacked one of my men
and he's got to hang!" said the OFFICER
.sToid him not to-"
will you go inside
You don't want to see your own
husband hung, do you
'.Ill sit yere," she answered. as she
settled down.
Now, then said the officer to the
husband. do you want to kiss your
wife and child before you go 49,
the mans face, but L observed not one
single one 1t was a face OF wood OF
stone He looked at the woman ana at
the child and it seemed as if he had not
understood. She did not even look up:
doubt if they had ever exchanged kisses
Perhaps he had never taken the infant in
his arms. 1t seems cruel now, when peace
has been upon the land for third of a
century but blood ran hot in those days
! of war and men did not stop to think The
moose Slipped over his head, and half a
dozen pairs of hands drew him clear of the
ground. his arms having been first tied be-
hind him He said no word and made no
struggle. You would have thought that
something like that had been part and
parcel of his daily existence for years.
Now we must burn the house. said
the officer to the wife of the grewsome