The midland journal., 1913-05-16


And you've turned him out to hssss
| He won't wait for the coach he'll just
sit In the woods until he freezes. /
know his spirit. Perhaps he's freezing
now. =
She took out little scented hand
kerchief and began sobh.Gg as il her
heart would break We didn't know
what to 90. Some Of us began NOV
ing away.
rs there q single man among you
lot of towards 2" she cried, raising her
face. all white with anger. rs there
single man here that will ride on
into the woods and bring him back
again?'
Yes, I'll co. miss" said Bill Jones.
'.I1l 60" said another.
AS for me, had already gone to
saddle my pony.
To cut 1t short, there wasn't man
| in Imperial City that didn't 60. In
| i've or six minutes every man jack Of
US was saddled and bridled and giving
the, others orders about spreading out
along the trail and bringing him back.
AAC 6AAA W2kSuCu uS AAuC OAAs
"You must get him." she cried. He's
worth SO much to meO, more than
You can possibly understand"
'I'll bring him back or bust, miss"
said Bill Jones. Il can't say more than
| that"
We hadn't got out of sight of I'M
perial City before we began wrangling
| nV 10 xrrIarl xxyoa IN
blame for driving the poor young fel-
low out into the cold. Each of US
tried to put it on the others, but final
ly we compromised by agreeing to put
| it on Bill Jones.
He must have had some grit In him
after all, for he had covered quite a
good deal Of ground. We followed his
steps for something like ten miles. and
then they stopped. The coach had
stopped here too. for there was good
deal of shutting tracks of, horse hoofs
in the snow. There weren't any more
tracks SO we all agreed that Mr.. Por-
ter had got aboard.
Then we began arguing again. Some
wanted to ride back and tell the young
lady, but others didn't much fancy
facing her without Mr.. Porter on hand.
So we agreed that it would be best to
ride on after the coach and bring him
back.
Well, sir, that coach seemed to be
driven by the devil, judging from the
pace it made. We didn't catch up to it
till nearly daylight just outside Presi-
dent, and by that time we were pretty
near frozen, and our horses too. And
when we did make it pull up there sat
Mr.. Porter asleep inside.
Come back? Not he.S He cursed US
when we appealed to his better ma
ture, said he didn't give hang for the
young lady and he wasn't going TO be
led into any trap by pack Of blood
thirsty rufaaps who only wanted to get
him back and take his life. The coach
was full of mining men and they most
ly agreed that Francis had the law on
his side. So we put in at President
for rest and then. having fed our
horses and ourselves. we set back
along the trail to Imperial City again.
We got back toward evening. It
hadn't occurred to us to inquire how
the young woman was going to pass
the night We supposed that she'd 60
to Hank Meany's house. Then we be-
| gan to count noses and we found that
Hank Meany was among us and I'm
perial City was left uninhabited.
Il guess a girl like that has sense.
enough to make herself at home said
Hank Meany. s'I'll lay a pound of dust
to half pound she'll be at the hotel"
/. We had to take him up on it. Bets
were laid among all of US. We made
a sweepstakes and the man whose
home she had honored was to get
something like nine thousand dollars
in dnst. We hurried along then and
rode into Imperial City with whoop
and yell.
We rode up to Hanks hotel. There
wasn't any young lady there, nor any
signs of her. She wasn't in Bill Jones
hut nor mine nor anybody's. At last
we came to the conclusion that she
wasn't anywhere in Imperial City.
"She wandered out into the cold to
die," stammered Bill Jones, and began
| crying.
We'll, we've got to find her." said
BE man. Bill. Come along. boys"
There weren't any tracks of shoes.
but horse seemed to have been hit
ting the trail pretty hard back toward
Ordinary, for its hoofs had flung up
the snow in all directions, and the
tracks ran on and on until, after we'd
gone three hundred yards, Bill rained
in his mare.
That's my old piebald. by thunder!"
he yelled. Look at them hicks in the
ice from that hind shoe of hers"
We looked at one another. but no
body dared say what he was thinking
Of. However, Bill's piebald was the
best horse in Imperial City and there
wasn't another would catch up with