The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-09-27
: g1|S 3
 { rSA5zIC [


 were helping Rawdon get ready for his wedding.
 "He made Kelly drink to Rawdon's happiness, and drink three or four times, and finally left him with a half full flask up the row toward Major Stannard's. Then we went to Captain Sumter's. Kelly told Cary the sery- ants were in at Captain Snaf1e's. The door was open. Cary watched below while hunted for my cousins room. found it easily. I knew they had sent her money and orders to come home. Uncle had written me as much. found her desk. I knew it well of old,. and then. to my horror, heard her voice, and in a second she was in the room. She gave one awful scream, though ' tore off my cap and begged her to know me, but she. fell in a faint. Others were coming. I broke out of the back window and slid and scrambled down the roof to the shed and So to the ground. I heard men come running. so I dived into the coal shed. where the sergeant grabbed me in the dark, and I had to make him let go and-said I was Lieutenant Lanier Later I crawIed through a hole in the fence snd started for the store, scared out of Ipy~wfts. Right at the next gate crashed into two men, picked my self and cap up and ran again, caught Gary at the store just jumping into a sleigh, and we lashed those horses ev- cry inch of the way, left them at a ranch gate and ran to the station Rawdon presently came and he took me to Omaha He, too. had to get away or be thrown into the guard house,
 'sYou have that overcoat with you yet, beIieve-that cavalry coat"
 s'Its all have had to wear, sir," was the answer us, rising. he took the garment from the arm of his chair and laid it upon the table, exposing rent or gash. whereupon Captain Sumter took from an envelope silver of vel low cloth and fitted it into the gap. .'Thia" said he, .'1 found on the hook of the storm sash, and this,' laying beside it a rusty sheath knife, twas later found under the snow close un- der the dormer window. Then, turn ing the overcoat inside out, he dis played on the back lining in stencil the. name 'Rawdop." :
 And now.'' said Riggs, i've will hear the accused"
 IL 4SA ACS0SSSEys 0GSdA o0lSoA"
 'It is necessary, Colonel Button. Of course MT. Lanier is not obliged to speak. but a few matters remain to be, cleared up There is yet the time hon. ored problem of who struck Billy Pat. terson g
 ''The matter is quite simple." said Lanier .f went direct from the danc- ing room to my quarters. The fire was 1rx &n S1o11 I3af feos-a He didn't answer, so I had to Jug in some fuel. His oEercoat hung in the kitchen, and put that on, and as opened the back door there came the scream from up the row. saw others running toward Captain SumteF's as started from thes back gate Then a man rushed past me, and then some body sprang from Captain Snaff1e's yard. and I went headlong. was on uy feet in a second. but he had me round the neck. ordering me to sur render. I let him have two hard ones right and left. Somebody else colhded with us. We all went down. The last man was up first and ran away with the first cap he could reach, and followed, knowing now it wasn't fire, but robbery. Then when I realized no
 
 was in arrest, dropped the chase and went straight to my quarters Both hands were bruised and left badly cut. am sorry, of course, to have struck Sergeant Fftzroy, but the language he used was vile, and it seemed to me the only way to convince him was not Trooper Rawdon,'
 Colonel Button, have you any Ques- tions?' demanded Riggs.
 efWhy didn't you tell me this ?'' de mande1 Button.
 q should have been glad to, colonel Indeed. tried 10 the last time was in the off1ce.''
 ''Well, gentlemen" said the colonel, ''we seeIp to have stirred up pretty kettle of fish.'' Yet even Snaff1e dis owned complicity. He always had said Lanier was perfect gentleman
 And so ended Bob's arrest. Rawdon fingered for a word with Cassidy, QuinIan and poor remorseful Rafferty; then followed. unhampered even by his arch enemy, Fitzroy, who slipped away to the stables three minutes after the close of the conference. But he was not even there when. along in the spring, MT. and Mrs. Rawdon came out for visit to pr. Mayhew. Like Rawdon. he had received his dis charge. Unlike Rawdon, there was serious objection to his re-enlistment ! Even Snafne dare not "take him on" again.
 It was not until mid-May that the bodies of the missing were found save that of Gary. Cary, who. having been given up for lost, turned up most un- expectedly the very day that Fitzroy. applicant for Ae-enliSt ment, was sum marily turned dowp. But Gary came not of his own volition. He marched with a file of the guard. Cary's story was simple enough. Rawdon and Lowndes had hardly got away on the train when Sergeant Stowen and his party came searching. Cary hid He was still half drunk. Some one told