The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-02-15
THE EVENING STORY
In the wiId west.
(By Otto Edward.)

(By Otto Edward.)
I am by no means awkward or slow,
said the multi-millionaire, Jack Del
| rails. have been a very good business
/ man, but to be perfectly frank, owe
| my success less to that than to luck.
Say whatever one may. luck is always
a very important factor in life. I owe
my fortune and my success to an old
woman, from the southern part of
| Texas, whom / met on the prairie; it
was at the time when the "Redboys"
to whom belonged, were fighting an
other crowd known as the Children
/ of the Blacksmith for the possession
OF silver mine. None of us knew very
much about the mine, but we imagfn-
ed that it contained immense guam
titles of ore, and that it was well worth
| fighting for.
The country in which we were liv-
ing was wild and uncivilized, but this
| made no difference to US who had not
| come to admire it or to seek the COM
forts of civilization, but to get such
metal out of the earth as we could in
the shortest possible time. The
| 'Blacksmith's Children" were nearly
all Americans or Eng1ishmen, while
we were an international crowd of
Scandinavians, Germans, Poles, Rus
slams, MexicanS and Frenchmen, and
because of this mixup of nationalities
we were at a disadvantage, and still
more SO because our enemies were all
good marksmen, while we were not
very proficient in handling revolvers
| or Winchesters. One advantage we
had, however. The mine was sur
rounded by swampS which it was al
most impossible to cross, with the ex-
ception of one or two places which we
fortified as well as we could.
The "Blacksmiths Children" at first
tried to starve us out; as they did not
succeed, because we were very saving
of our provisions, they had suddenly
disappeared.
We all knew, however, that this was
a trick, and that they would soon ap-
pear again, and for this reason we
kept sharp lookout.
Matters were thus when one morn
ing left the camp to scout. 1 had an
exceedingly keen ,eyesight, and was
used to life in the open air, and beside
l had as company my dog, Theseus,
that was able to smell human being
a mile off. We had already covered a
large territory, and toward noon we
found ourselves seven or eight miles
away from camp.
I was preparing our dinner, when
Theseus suddenly let me understand
that he snelt a human being some
where.
The surrounding country was very
fat covered with grass, which was not
very tall, except in one or two places,
and there were within sight two or
three clumps of trees, among which
man might hide. was looking in the
direction from which Thesus had pick
ed up the scent, but it was some time
before J was able to discover a woman
in the grass some distance away. She
was walking toward us, and was ac-
companfed by girl of about twelve or
thirteen years.
She soon saw US and when she was
about one hundred yards away l called
to her. She answered with a courtesy
and evidently asked for something. A
moment later she was at my side, and
saw a tan face surrounded by white
hair, and a long curved nose resem-
bling the beak of an owl, and two still
lively green eyes. The girl, who was
almost as brown as. the old womang
was quite pretty, and especially were
her eyes exceedingly beautiful.
well, mother" / said, what can
do for you?"
Give US something to eat" she re-
piled weakly. MY girl and I are dying
from starvation and I have only one
cartridge left in my rifle"
"Al right" I replied. IF you are
not afraid of pemmican, cold corn
mush. and cheese, you are welcome to
take dinner with U.S..
God bless you," she said with sigh
of relief.
We sat down, and must say that it
was pleasure to see those two people
eat For some time neither of them
spoke word, and then the old woman
told me that she had left a settlement
in the east with her son and her
grandchiId and that her son had drown
ed in a river on the way and that for
ten days she had been wandering with
the child without knowing where TO go
and without being able to f1nd her way
through the prairie.
ST had but three cartridges, she
said. my poor son carried all the
rest of the ammunition in his belt
when he was drowned. have killed
rabbit and a dove. Then came starva-
ton, and if we had not met you we
should surely have died"
"You must be quite a good shot,
"Oh, yes; 1 have always been handy
with gun" she replied calmly.
''If YOU are not afraid of rough boys,
YOU are welcome to our camp"
Like all American women in the
west, she had absolute confidence in
the honesty of men, and she did not
hesitate to accept my oner' TITO
camp, where the boys received her
quite friendly. though with no marked
enthusiasm.
Ever since the ''blacksmith's chill
dren" had disappeared we were at
loss to decide whether we should stay
where we were or begin to look for the
mine. On one had we were afraid of
a trap: on the other we hated to leave
the place. To be sure, we might have |
sent some to hide, but we did not trust |
each other and for this reason did not |
do it. Every day we had a council of
war. and every day we decided not to |
decide anything until the next day
Several days had gone when the sentry |
ona morning awoke us suddenly, and |
it did not take us long to see that we
were in danger. Shots were heard, |
and one of our boys had been killed |
another wounded. 1t was clear that |
it was the "blacksmith's children" |
who had surprised us, though we |
could not discover them anywhere.
During the night about ten of them |
had crossed to an island not far from |
our possession which we had not |
til ought 1t possible that any one could |