Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1909-11-26

this while the baby yelled till my ears
sang again. Well. l gave her four bits
TO get rid of her, but she stuck to me
yet the closer. and contided to me that
she wed in that house over yonder,
she did-the house with the blinds.
was nurse-maid there, so she was.
b'Gawd. But at last l got away and
fled in the direction Of Stockton street.
AS | was going along, however, l re-
Elected that the shrieking infant was
somebody's child, and no doubt popular
in the house with the blinds. The par.
ents ought to know that it's nurse got
drunk and into fixes. 1t was a duty
a dirty duty-for me to inform upon
her.
Much as l loathed to do so l turned
towards the house with the blinds. |
stood hard by the Russian church, a
huge w~hite-painted affair, all the win
dows closely shattered and a bit of
stained glass in the front ~door-quite
the most p~retentious house in the row.
l had got directly opposite, and was
about to cross the street when, 10!
around the corner. marching rapidly
and with blue coats tapping, buttons
and buckles flashing. came a squad OF
three, seven, nineteen policemen.
They marched straight upon the house
with the blinds.
| am not brilliant nor adventurous,
but | have been told that l am good,
and l do strive to be respectable, and
pay my Y and pew rent. As a
corollary to this, l loathed unutterable
to be involved In a mess Of any kind.
The squad of policemen were about to
enter the house with the blinds, and
not for worlds would have been
found by them upon its steps. The
nurse-girl might heave that shrieking
infant over the cliff of Telegraph Hill,
ii we're all one with me. Sc I shrank
back pom the sidewalk and watched
what followed.
Fifty yards from the house the squad
broke into a run, swarmed upon the
front steps. and in a moment we're
laundering upon the front door till the
stained glass leaped in it's leads and
shivered down upon their helmets. And
then, just at his point, occurred an
incident which, though it had no bear
ing upon or connection with this yarn,
is quite queer enough to be set down.
The shutters OF one of the top-story
windows opened slowly. like the gills
Of a breathing fish. the sash raised
some six inches with a reluctant wall,
and a hand CROPPED forth into the open
air. On the sill Of the window was
lying a gilded Indian-club. and while
| watched, wondering. the hand closed
upon it, drew 1t under the sash, the
window dropped guillotine-fashion, and
the shutters clapped to like the shut
tiers Of a cuckoo clock. Why was the
~Indian-club lying on the sill? Why, in
heavens name, was it gilded? Why
did the owner OF that mysterious CROP
ing hand seize upon it at the first in
timation Of danger? l don't know
never will know. But l do know that
the thing was eldritch and upcanny,
ghostly even in the glare Of that
cheerless afternoons sun, in that bar
rem park, with the trade winds thrash
ing up from the seward streets.
Suddenly the door crashed in. The
policemen vanished inside the house.
Everything fell silent again. l waited
for perhaps fifty seconds-waited,
watching and listening, ready for any
thing that might happen, expecting I
knew not what-everything.
Not more than five minutes had
elapsed when the policemen began to
reappear. They came slowly, and we'll
they might, for they carried with them
the intert bodies of six gentlemen.
When I say carried I mean it in its
most literal sense. for never in all my
life have seen six gentlemen so com
pletely, SO thoroughly, SO hopelessly
and helplessly intoxicated. Well
dressed they were, too, one of them
even in full dress. Salvos Of artillery
could not have awakened that drunken
half dozen, and doubt il any one of
them could even have been racked into
consciousness.
Three hacks appeared (note that the
patrol wagon was conspicuously alb
sent), the six were loaded upon the
cushions. the wore was given and one
by n the hacks ratified down Stock
ton street and disappeared in the d.
rection of the city. The captain of the
squad remained behind for a few min
utes, locked the outside doors in the
deserted shattered house, descended
the steps, and went his way across the
park, softly whistling a Quickstep. In
time he, too. vanished. The park, the
rows OF houses, the w~indnogged streets,
resumed their normal quiet. The in
| cident wAs closed.
Or was It closed? Judge you now.
Next DAY va down upon IL
vAa5vo, sripaAck u laDA, caprea cd