Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1911-03-16
Held For Ransom
By M. QUAD
Copyright, 1910, by Associated Lit
erary Press.
By M. QUAD

On a certain summers afternoon MIR.
James Gilbert of Gilbert's bank in a
town we will call Hopedale opened the
telephone in his private Office to be
greeted by q strange humming OF the
wires. Then two or three voices began
calling and talking. Then some one
used energetic language to central, and
n answered re~sentfully. Then came
a voice that gave the banker a start.
1t had been two years since he heard
it. From the jingle of voices he made
out the words:
Auto ran over calf; pay $40; farmer
won't let me go; no money; hurry up.
Hello, central; hello. hello! Oh. dearr'
The banker smiled. Two years before
while fishing from the wharf and be-
fore establishing the bank a summer
girl from the hotel on the hill had come
padding about in her store made ca
noe. He saw at once that she was a
novice. He saw also that she had
not yet passed her twentieth year and
was his style Of beauty. For a young
man of twenty-four who had fshed a
full hour without a nibble Mr.. Gilbert
was in luck.
OF course the owner of the canoe was
bound to show off. 1t was only her
second voyage in the birch bark, but
she thought she knew all the canoe
tricks and was ready to resent any
advice. She wasn't rendered any to
resent, however. The young man con
tented himself with taking off his o.
and slipping off his shoes. When the
canoe turned turtle he was ready. He
took a long dive and came to the sur
face with the choking, struggling girl
in his arms and reached the shore with
her.
That evening he appeared at the no.
tel to be effusively thanked by Judge
Henrys, the father, and by the CRATE
full, If chagrined, canoeist. Several
other evenings saw him there as well,
and between talking politics with the
father and canoeing with Miss Kitty
the time was passed very pleasantly.
Something vas said about correspond
ence when father and daughter left
for their home in the city. AS a mat
ter of fact two or three letters did
pass, and hen Uncle Sans carriers
failed to deliver. The young banker
had puzzled a bit, as perhaps had
some one else, and now, on account of
the crossed wires, he was hearing her
voice again.
What had that voice said? 1t was
trying to reach some one at the hotel
on the hill, but evidently making a
failure of it. The owner was in trou-
bic somewhere. 1t looked as if she
had gone out in an auto and run down
a calf and the farmer was holding her
until the damages were settled. The
banker thought for a moment and then
ordered his auto around.
Which way? He had trusted to luck
once and would again. Out of town
by the west highway-over the bridge
up the long hill and then straight
ahead for five miles. Far ahead he
saw an auto beside the road with two
female figures in it and a farmer in
sulky attitude leaning against the
fence. The females in the auto were
Miss Henrys and a girl friend. There
was ha%ndshaking and introductions,
and Miss Kitty explained:
"We were coming along at about ten
miles an hour when the calf ran in
| front Of the machine. I was willing
to pay damages. but had no money.
| and the man here would not take one
| of my rings"
Il hain't taking no rings any more.
Feller come along here last summer
and run owe my old woman and then
left a diamond ring that turned out to
be glass"
He was given his money by the
banker.
OF course Mr.. Gilbert had to call at
the summer hotel that evening to talk
| the matter over. There was some
thing that the young people wanted to
say, but they couldn't say it until after
Judge Henrys had poured out his
thanks and remembered that he had to
meet a man in the lobby. Even after
he had departed the matter fingered.
but it was very soon cleared up.
Two weeks later. in the bankers
auto, Miss Kitty and Mr.. Gilbert
went spinning v the west road. So
earnest was their talk that they failed
to note that they were drawing les
the farm where the calf accident had