The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1909-05-06

placed the gag in order to silence MS
captive. Murray glanced at the suJcn
faces of the three men, and laughed
pleasantly. "Oh, Peter" he called
! aloud, and an answering: Yah, Shon,'
came from the Dutchman in the back
room.
There may be a little fuss out here,
! Peter" cried the detective. III you
hear the sound of shot or scuiile.
just shoot the prisoner through the
head first and then come out and give
me hand
Dots shust vat III do" replied
Peter. placidly.
| The members of the trio looked rath.
| er blankly at once another as they
listened to Peters reply. Clearly these
| kidnapers Of their mckless friend were
/ not persons to be triiled with They
turned away from Murray as though to
| hold Il whispered conference, but that
alert officer Interrupted them with
| significant wave of one of his weapons.
None Of that" he said tartly.
Face me. and keep your hands in
| front. all OF you"
/ They complied, sulklly, and the man
/ who had first spoken addressed Muir
ray again.
May we speak to the prisoner he
asked
one Of you at time may, from
/ this side of the door Of that room
assonted Murray.
The spokesman of the party ad
/ yanced to the door OF the chamber,
and hailed the prisoner by name An
! iuarticulate gurgle was the only re-
/ Spouse and he turned a puzzled face
! to Murray
He don't answer was his com.
mcnt Guess your man must have
tied his mouth up"
on, Peter" shouted Murray, take
the plug out of that gentleman's Jaw
and let him speak to his friends out
/ side the door"
A torrent of cxecrations In Baldys
rough voice showed that the order
had been promptly obeycd. In reply
to his friends inquiry as TO what Of
fonse he had been arrested for. and
what he wanted them 10 do, the cap
tive again ragged furiously.
Don't stand there talking and chat
tering like monkey" he yelled
why don't you cussed fools get start
ed and cut the hearts out of these fell
lers? If | had my hands free for just
minute I'd show you"
This sentence trailed of into an
other explosion of oaths, and MurrG
prinned as he pointed to the front doot
Il guess that will be all your fr'ent
has to say" he remarked. 80 J
won't detain you three people am
longer. Goodnight"
Under cover of detectives
guns the trio filed out Of the main
door. Their comrades in the street
had retired TO the edge Of the side
walk, where they stood, talking the
matter over. As the last of the trio
went out, he turned suddenly and
flung himself against the door, in an
attempt to swing II wide open. Muir
ray. who had been expecting SONS
trick. thrust his shoulder squarely into
the fellows chest. sending him stag
gering backward, and slammed the
door
There was Il chorus of curses and
shouts from those outside that seemed
10 preclude another assault on the door
against which Murray was leaning
with all his force, trying TO Sc
cure Suddenly shot rang out
In the back room, followed by a hor
rible moan and the yels of the attack
ing party ceased with startling abrupt
ness. In the stiffness that ensued Muir
ray heard one of his enemies say, In
agItated tones:
by heavens, it's all OF with poor
Raldy now boys That skunk Of
marshals pardner has shot him.
We'll, what will we do now?' in
quircd another voice.
Do" repeated the first speaker, bit
terly What can we do? The only
plan can see Is TO wait TIL morning
comes. when therell be light enough
to look about us Then we can see
what we're up against, and maybe get
n chance to break even with them TIVE
! IllIl NfltlN. HfN tdH B'i 'hN VI NV
hotel without us seeing them, any
way, and | amt disposed TO take
chances on n shooting bee with them
In the dark"
A murmur Of assent ran through the
crowd about the door, and Murray
heaved sigh Of relief as he shot the
last bolt into place and fastened TO see
whether Dutch Peter had actually adj
mnistcred the coup-de.Grace to the
redoubtable Badly. On entering the
back room he was greeted with o
cheerful grin by the deputy, who point
ed to the bound and gagged figure OF
the prisoner lying on the floor. About
an inch above the latter's head ap
peared round hole In the wall. a
token of where the bullet from Peters
revolver had plowed its way when he
fired the shot to cause the gang out
side to think that the prisoners earth
ly career was at an end.
Tho train for Chicago was due IN