Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1913-01-03

time The thrilling youth fired ques-
ton and leading question like a cross
examining counsel in Il fever to con-
clude his case. The tea arrived, but
| the whim driver had to help himself.
His host neglected everything but the
first chance he had ever had of hearing
of Stingaree or an other bushranger
at first hand
And how long We're you there"'
About week.
What happened then"
The whim driver paused i'll doubt re-
neWed
You will never guess
Tell me-
They waited for the next dust storm
and then cast me adrift in that
Oswald stared. He would never have
guessed indeed. The unhealthy light
faded from his sallow face Even his
morbid enthusiasm was damped.
you must have done something to
deserve it, he cried at last
Il did, was the reply, with hanging
head. IL tried to take him.
Take your benefactor-take him
prisoner?"
Yes; the man who saved my life"
Melvin sat staring. 1t was a stare
of honestly incredulous disgust. Then
he sprang to his feet, brighter youth
than ever, his depression melted like a
cloud. His villarous hero was
heroic villain after all His heart of
hearts, which was not black, could
still render homage to Stingaree. He
no longer frowned on his informer as
on thing accused. The creature had
wiped out his original treachery to
Stlngaree by replacing the uniniured
idol in its niche in this warped mind.
Oswald, however, had made his repug-
nance only too plain. He was unable
to elicit another detail, and in a very
few minutes Mrs. Melvin was back in
her place, though not before Ticking if
with her handkerchief undetected by
her son.
It was certainly a battered and hang
dog figure that stole away into the
bush. Yet the creature Strengthened
as he strobe into starlight undefiled by
earthly illuminate His palsy left
him. Presently as he went he began
lingering the new melodeon in the way
of a man who need not have sought
elementary instruction from Oswald
Melvin. And now shining disk filled
one unwashed eye.
Sungaree lay part of that night
beside the milk white mare that he
had left tethered in box clump quite
near the town. At sunrise he knelt
and shaved on the margin of a gov
eminent tank Def, re breaking the mir
ror by plunging i'll. And before the
next stars paled he was snugly back
in older hauntS none knowing of his
descent upon those of men.
There or therea bouts, hidden like the
needle in the hay and yet ubiquitous
in the stack, the buShranger remained
for months. Then there was an en-
counter, not the first of this period.
but the first in which shots were eX-
changed. One of these pierced the
lungs of his melodeon-an instrument
more notorious by this time than the
musi al box before it--a still greater
treasure to Stingaree That was near
the full of certain summer moon. 1t
was barely waning to the eye when
the battered buyer of melodeOns came
for new one to the shop in the pretty
bush town.
The shop was closed for the night,
but Stingaree knocked at a lighted
window under the veranda, which Mrs.
Melvin presently threw up. Her eyes
flashed when she recognized one
against whom she now harbored bit
terness on quite Il different plane of
feeling from her former rcpulsion.
Even to his first glance she looked an
older and harder woman.
Il am sorry to see you she said.
with a soft vehemence plainly foreign
to herself Il almost hate the sight
of YOU. You have been the ruin of N.Y.
SON."
His ruin?''
Stingaree forgot the speech of the
unlettered Stockman. but his cry was
too short to do worse than warn him.
Come round" continued Mrs. Mel
vim austerey. Il will see you. You
shall hear what you have DONE"
In another minute he was in the par
lor where he had sat aforetime. He
never dreamt of sitting now. But the
lady took her accustomed chair as a
queen her throne. .s}