Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-07-25

he would feel If he had to go through HE
with the death of his father-in-law on his
conscience. He would never forgive him
self if he killed you in the heat OF the
moment"
Neither would l." said Mr.. Dodds,
simply but firmly.
The thought does you credit" I said.
but what we have got to do now is to to
circumvent Ferguson. We could wait
here until he runs the machine up here,
and then spring out at him
That" said Mr.. Dodds. would not
do at all. We might have to wait for a
week. 1t is hardly probable that he will
get the automobile going before morning,
at the earliest"
Very WE'LL said. Then 1 have but
one other thing to propose. I shall drive
this rig TO one side Of the road, and then
l shall take club. and mount my wheel,
handed and kill him. l am not afraid. I
can creep upon him unawares. because he
will be down on his back under the car
1 said this because l knew that Fergu-
son would he wondering where 1 was,
and that if 1 did not get back presently
to help him fix the car he would be very
angry with me. I had to get away from
Mr.. Dodds some way. But I did not ex-
pect my proposition would have the re-
suit that it did have.
Mr.. Dodds coughed gently, and hesi-
tated a moment, and then he told me that
Ferguson knew that he was not being
sincerely pursued He told me that he
had no objection to Ferguson and that
he was only pursuing the clippers because
Dolly was silly little romantic girl, and
that 1t was put-up job between Fer
guson and him. He said that, and it re-
lieved my mind greatly 1t made it all
clear to me- I saw, or 1 thought I saw,
that it was all to hoodwink Dolly into
believing that we were all in earnest.
simply told Mr.. Dodds to wait where he
was. and I got out my wheel and went
back to Ferguson.
When l got back to the Viborg-Potz-
CONNER Ferguson was just crawling out
from under it. and he was in a testy
mood. A man who has to stop right in
automobile has good right to be testy,
but I did not think he had right to
speak to me the way he did
Where in the dickens have you been
all this timer" he asked. Here am I
sweating and moiling under this machine.
and getting all smutty and dusty. and
you go off riding on your bicycle as if
you had nothing else in the world to do"
was unreasonable-that it was as much
his elopement as it was mine-but de-
cided that it would not be the right thing
to introduce discord into an elopement
that was going so smoothly. so merely
said that 1 had gone back to see who was
following us, and that 1 had returned as
soon as l could.
That is funny" said Dolly. for you
returned from the opposite direction
of course l said promptly Il did
that because 1 was riding with your ia
Their. I was with him when he went by"
They looked at me stupidity. 1 could
see that by the light of the lamp that
Ferguson had removed to work by.
Il had to do it,. l said He came
upon me unexpectedly and forced me into
the buggy at the point Of his pistol And
1T was lucky he did. If I had not been in
the buggy his shot would have killed you.
l4 a,r,
seized the whip and struck the horse, and
jumped
They looked at each other perplexed
sleeve and led me to one side He ex-
planned to me fully and freely that Mr..
Dodds had not shot. He said that Mr..
Dodds was aware that Ferguson and
Dolly meant to elope and had given
Ferguson his consent He said it was all
to please Dolly. l said that if that was
SO. the thing to do was to get to work on
the Viborg-Potzcommer at once because
| had left Mr.. Dodds in the buggy. and he
was an - man .and not used to the
night o. Il IL he sat too long he
might TAX death of cold. So we went
TO work. ana the more we worked the
less the Viborg- Potzcommer offered to
run; Ferguson began to get nervous.
dolly began to get sleepy.
We'll" said after an hour or so. 'it
is evident that this car is not going to
run any more tonight. and there is one
OF two things to do. We must either post
Pone this elopement or I must skirmish
up the road and see If can get horse In
some farmhouse"
Dolly would not think OF giving up the
elopement- said I would get a horse.
started up the road. and the farther
wen the less I liked the idea of routing
cross farmer out of his bed. 1 went on
until came to where Mr. Dodds was sit
ting In his buggy, and boldly proposed
that he should go back and pull the vi
borg-Potzcommer. At first he demurred.
He said 1t would not look right; that he
had come out to chase the elopement and
not to pull 1t: but said that 1t was that
or nothing. II he would not lend his
horse l would throw up the whole thing
and go home, and then the elopement
would be postponed and he would have to
do 1t all over some other night. That set
tied it.
I drove back and I had Mr. Dodds so
nicely covered with the lap robe that he