The Irish standard., 1910-02-05
Copyright, by Joseph B. Bowles.)
By GILBERT PARKER

Copyright, by j
"Say, amt he pretty?"
"A Jim-dandy-oh, my!"
whats his price in open market"
"Thirty Millions think not
Then was heard the voice of Billy
Goat-his name was William Goatry.
"Out in the cold world, out in the street;
Nothing to wear and nothing to eat,
Eatherless, motherless, sadly 1 roam.
Child OF misfortune, I'm driven from
A loud laugh followed, for Billy
Goat was popular person at Ko-
watin in the Saskatchewan country.
He had an inimitable drollery, height.
ened by cast in his eye, very
large mouth, and a round, good.
humored face; also he had hand
and arm like iron, and was alto
gether great man on "spree."
There had been two days spree
at Kowatin, for no other reason than
that there had been great excitement
over the capture and subsequent es-
cape of q prairie rover who had
robbed the contractors money-chest
at the rail-head 7on the Canadian Pa
( cif1c railroad. He: had been caught
40 miles from KowatinF by the tall,
brown.eyed man. with the hard-bitten
face who leaned against the open
window of the tavern, looking in
differently at the jeering crowd be-
fore him. He was not unpopular with
them, but he had been failure for
once, and, as Billy Goat had said, 1T
tickled us to death to see rider of
the plains off his trolley-on the cold,
cold ground: same as you and me-"
This man, leaning idly against the
wall, staring into the sunlight, and
smoking Mexican cheroot, had been,
as Billy Goat said, $50 dang success
fur that they had a peculiar JOY in
his coming cropper, as they had
done in their time too often. They
did not under-value him. If he had
been less a man than he was, they
would not have taken the trouble to
cover him with their drunken ribaldry.
He had scored off them in the past,
in just such sprees as this, when he
had the power to do so and used the
power good-naturedly and quietly
but used it.
Then, he was Sergeant Foyle,> Of
; the Royal Northwest Mounted Police,
on duty in a district as large as the
United Kingdom. And he had no
greater admirer than Billy Goat, who
now reviled him. Not without cause,
in way, for he had reviled himself
to this extent, that when the prairie.
rover, Halbeck, escaped on the way
to- Prince Albert, after six months
hunt for him and final capture in
the Kowatin district, Foyle resigned
the force before the commissioner
could reproach him or call him to &C
count.
Then he had made his way to the
Happy Land hotel at Kowatin, to be.
gin life as "a free and independent
gent on the loose" as Billy Goat had
said. To resign had seemed extreme;
because, though the commissioner
was vexed at Halbeck's escape, Foyle
was the best noncommissioned officer
In the Force. He had frightened horse
thieves and bogus land agents and
SPECTATORS out Of the country; had
fearlessly tracked down a criminal or
band of criminals when the odds
were heavy against him. He carried
on his face the scars of two bullets,
and there was one white lock in his
brown hair, where an arrow had torn
the scalp away as, alone, he drove
into the post score Of Indians, fresh
from raiding the cattle of an immi-
grant trailing to the farther north.
Nettlewood Foyle watched the dust
rising from the wheels of the stage,
which had passed the elevator and
was nearing the Prairie Home hotel
far down the street. He would soon
leave behind him this noisy ribaldry
of which he was the center. He tossed
his cheroot away. Suddenly he heard
a low voice behind him.
"Why don't you hit out, sergeant"
1t said.
A girls face from tho shade Of the
sitting room was looking out at him
halfsmiling. but with heightened
.eQlor and suppressed agitation. Tie