The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1913-05-22

Todhunter the truth If hadn't been
afeared o. Jesse and If I hadn't seen
that it would be evenin' things up with
Tom Strickland as we'll as Jesse had
evened 'em up with STAN Tucker If
went away with him.
"What do you mean by evening up
! things with Tom Strickland? You have
lust testified under oath that Tom
Strickland had done you no wrong"
The girl was silent for moment
Her face flushed dark red and then
; went white again.
"Tom Strickland made me eat my
heart out for him. she cried sudden
ly, shame and desperate defiance IN
the passionate eyes that confronted
her audience. Gle wouldn't see that
I loved him better'n anything else IN
all this world aud that l wanted him
to love me the same way. And the
reason he wouldn't see what | was al
ways a-showin' him was that he was
so dead in love with Miss Mary Tod
hunter. That's what made me tell
that lie against him when | knowed
that Mrs Todhunter was a-goin to
ask me to leave the party"
There was pitiful break in the
girls voice.
81 didn't care the tip Of my finger
for Jesse Bream!' she cried. Il hated
and despised him. But he was willin'
to marry me and take me away from
Nineveh, and 50 KEEP my mouth shet
and waited for him to come and 90 It,
81 am going to ask you, Miss Dog
gett," said Major Gentry Dryden.
when was the first time you saw
I Jesse Bream after Colonel Todhun-
ter's visit to you that day?'
i II didn't see him till the day before
this here trial begun. sub. He had
, gone away to fix things up for mar
ryin' me and takin' me down some
where in Oklahoma. and he didn't
! come back till then"
"What time Of the day did you see
him?"
~ reckon twas long about three or
TO- o'clock in the day, sub. He didn't
come clear to the house cause he saw
grandfather settin' on the front gal
lery. But be give a whistle knew,
and went out and met him.
where did you meet him?"
"In a little clump O. woods cross the
road, not far from the old cabin where
Aunt Mirandy Ransom and old Jed
Ransom, her husband. two colored PEG
pie, are Twin. suh.'
"What had he come to see you
about?"
He come to tell me that everything
was ready for us to run away that
very night. He was plannin' to drive
over into Rails county, and we'd get
married there and then start for Okla
homa. And he'd been drinkin' and was
braggin' about how he'd killed STAN
Tucker 1t was then l knOwed for the
first time, from his own lips, that 1t
was him that killed STAN, but I'd been
certain Of it in my mind all the time
did you consent to 60 away with
him?'
Eyes, sub, and we went away togeth
err. The first day and night he got to
drinkin', and when we stopped at the
hotel in Sidon he quarreled with me-
keepin' on sayin' that I was in love
with Tom Strickland and would blab
about who did really murder STAN
Tucker If I got half chance. And
somethin' I said then about my wish
in had told the truth at first skeered
him. Stead O. stayin' in Sidon till ne
was ready to go straight to Oklahoma
he took me away from there the next
day. We went fur, too. and he was al
ways a-watchin' me. At daybreak one
mornin' we come to tumbledown
cabin deep in the woods, and he said
that's where we'd stay till dark. and
then l begun to be skeered myself"
"Of what were you afraid?
~ begun to feel skeered that be was
a-eoin' to kill me. We had quarreled
and auarreled, and whenever lost my
temper good and proper I told him the
truth-that l oughtn't to leave Tom
Strickland to be hung when I knowed
Tom wasn't guilty and knowed who
was. Then-well, all Of sudden we
had our biggest quarrel, and what I'd
been skeered Of come to pass"
What do you mean by that, Miss
=. Doggett?"
Il mean that Chickasaw Jesse tried
to kill me, sun. He sorter went crazy
and jumped for me with his bowie
knife in his hand. and Id ha' been
dead the next minute if it hadn't been
for Colonel Todhunter. subj"
For Colonel Todhunter?"
Eyes, sub. Colonel Todhunter bust
ed in the door O. the cabin that very
minute, brngin' the sheriff O Rails
county along with him. Him and the
sheriff both had their pistols sighted or
Jesse and made him throw his knife
down. And then done what I'D want
ed to do all the time. told them II
, was Chickasaw Jesse Bream who had
, killed STAN Tucker"
, And what happened when you did
that?"
The girl shivered.s II don't like to
Al,,,r ,bn,,+ H. uo made mo fool like