The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1908-03-20


hideous creature behind them. THAT
man could tell, but he has gone mad"
Brant endeavored 20 speak, but the
words would not come; his brain
seemed paralyzed. Hampton held him
self under better control.
II have confidence, Lieut.. Brant, in
your honesty" he began, gravely, and
believe you will strive to do what
ever is best for her, If anything should
happen to me out yonder. But for the
possibility of my being knocked out,
wouldn't talk about this, not even to
you. The affair is a long way from
being Strengthened out so as to make
pleasant story, but I'll give you all
you actually require to know in order
to make it clear to her, provided |
shouldn't come back. You see, she
doesn't know very much more than
you do-only what | was obliged to
tell to keep her from getting too close
ly entangled with you. Maybe / ought
to have given her the full story before
| started on this trip. I've since
wished / had, but you see | never
dreamed it was going to end here, on
the Big Horn; besides, | didn't have
the nerve.
You see, Brant, / feel that simply
| have to carry these dispatches
through. | have a pride in giving
them to Custer myself, because of the
trouble I've had in getting them here.
But perhaps | may not come back,
N ~ IT, ha
anyone living to tell her the truth. 1t
seems TO me that there is going to be
big fight somewhere in these hills
before long. So | want to leave these
private papers with you until | come
back. It will relieve my mind to know
they are safe; If / don't come, then |
want you TO open them and do what
ever you decide is best for the little
girl. You will do that, won't you?"
He handed over a long manila en-
velope securely sealed, and the young
| or man accepted it, noticing that it
was unaddressed before depositing it
safely in an inner pocket of his fatigue
jacket.
Certainly, Hampton" he said "Is
that all?"
"All except what I am going to tell
| you now regarding Murphy. There is
no use my attempting to explain eX-
actly how | CHANGED to find ont all
these things for they came to me little
! by little during several years. | knew
! Nolan, and | knew your father, and
had reason to doubt the guilt of the
f1i In % 81
! jury that condemned him. In fact,
knew at the time although it was not
! in my power to prove it, that the two
| principal witnesses against Nolan lied.
| thought ! could guess why, but we
! drifted apart. and finally | lost all
track of every one connected with the
affair. Then | happened to pick up
that girl down in the canyon beyond
the Bear Water, and pulled her out
alive just because she CHANGED to be
of that sex, and | couldn't stand to see
her fall into Indian clutches. | didn't
feel any special interest in her at the
| time, supposing she belonged to Old
| Gillis, but she somehow grew on me
she's that kind, you know; and
when | discovered, purely by accident,
that she was Capt. Nolan's girl, but
that IL all had been kept from her,
| just naturally made up my mind Id
dig out the truth If | possibly could,
for her sake. The fact u.s. began to
| think a lot about her-not the way
| you do, you understand; I'm getting
too old for that, and have known too
much about women.-but maybe some
what as father might feel. Anyhow,
wanted to give her a chance, q
square deal, so that she wouldn't be
ashamed of her own name if ever she
found out what it was.
About that time / fell foul of Muir
ply and Slavin there in Glencaid.
| never got my eyes on Murphy, you
know, and Slavin was so changed by
that big red beard that | failed to rec
ognize him. But their actions aroused
my suspicious, and | went after them
good and hard. / wanted to find out
what they knew, and why those lies
were told on Nolan at the trial. had
an idea they could tell me. So, for a
starter | tackled Slavin, supposing we
were alone, and / was pumping the
facts out of him successfully by hold
ing a gun under his nose, and occa-
sionally jogging his memory, when
this fellow Murphy got excited and
chasseed into the game. but happened
to nip his partner instead of me. In
the course of our little scuffle
CHANGED to catch a glimpse of the fell
lows right hand, and it had a scar on
the back of it that looked mighty ia
miliar. l had seen it before, and
wanted to see it again. &c. when
got out of that scrape. and the doctor
had dug a stray bullet out of my
anatomy, there didn't seem to be any
one left for me to chase excepting
Murphy, for Slavin was dead. l wasn't
exactly sure he was the owner of that
scar, but | had my suspicious and
wanted to verify them. Having struck
his trail, / reached Cheyenne just
about four hours after he left there
with these dispatches for the Big Horn.
| caught up with the fellow on the