The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-03-26

few days breathin' time anyway be- fore there's any further danger"
 But even as Colonel Todhunter thus spoke young Sta mford Tucker lay dead at home. He had been shot the night before. and Tom Strickland now was held prisoner in the little Nine veh jail accused of his murder.
 A messenger bearing these dreadful tidings arrived as the colonel stood on the front gallery enjoying the fresh ness of the morning. He came from Tom Strickland himself
 Colonel Todhunter received the news in silence, his gray brows bent until his eyes were but two glints of metal lie blue gray beneath. his grim lips set in an infexibIe line
 '"TeIl Tom I'll be with him right away" he said at the story's comple- ton. "And tell him to keep his cour- age up-I'm going to do everything I can for him."
 Nevertheless the colonePs own heart was heavy for Mary's sake, for Tom's dire peril and knowing well that it would all come near to breaking the heart of Colonel Bill Strickland, his lifelong friend. But it was no time to sit in cold judgment upon Toms sin
 
 was in the power of mortal man to give.
 Halting a moment at the NineYeh hotel to send a telegram to the Hon. William J. Strickland. now himself campaigning in northern Missouri, Colonel Todhunter then hurried to the jail. The moment his eyes fell on Tom Stricklands face he knew that the lad had honn dT-in ho fw0 clasped hands and stood facing each other in silence. At last the colonel spoke.
 "Tom,'' he said, 'I want to tell you at the start that Pm goin' to accept every word you say as gospel, and want you to tell me the whole truth. Then while we're waittn' for your fla ther to get here I'll know better what to do in begfnnin' arrangements for your defense. You must tell me the Gods truth. my boy"
 Tom Strickland's plucky eyes, un- dtckertng, though still bIoodshot from overnight drinking, held those of the speaker in level glance.
 ''I'n tell you the truth, colonel" he answered. 'I won't vary from it by hair if know it-'
 "How did. the meetin' between you and Stam Tucker come about, TomT asked Colonel Todhunter. ''Ten me just when and how you killed him.''
 Colonel" replied Tom Strickland, ''I haxe no recollection of killing Stam Tucker last night. I don't even remenn- Der meeting him."
 What do you mean by that ?"
 'I mean that I started out to meet Stam, and that it was my intention to Iri h0 ToT7TaI ialv +o1Y t+T +T7<s Huth about him and Lottie- May Dog gett, but ain't clear in my mind as to what happened after left Nick B1edsoe's barroom. I got to drinking there, thinking while was waiting for Stan Tucker to keep an appointment that I made by letter. and I got tired waiting for Stam to show up, so start ed out to go to his house, seeing as how he wouldn't come to the place had named This much I remember, and I've got a confused recollection of wan dering about the edge of town, but the first thing I remember with any dis tinctness after leaving Nick Bledsoe's, is finding myself in the Nineveh hotel barroom drinking again Whatever happened between is gone from my memory. I was drinking hard, Colonel Todhunter, and that's all there is to it. I started drinking because had lost well, I didn't care what happened to me, sir,'' Tom concluded.
 You were armed, of course, when you went to meet Stam and have 1t out with him?"
 "Yes, sir; had my pistol on me-"
 Well, then-Weu, then, Tom-when you were arrested this mornin'. after Stam Fuckers body was found on the side of the road halfway between his home and the town, what story did your gun tell, boy? If you had had a shootin' scrape durin' that time your weapon would have said so-a man in your condition. with this difficulty settled. wouldn't have reloaded his gun. What fix was yours in, TomT'
 "That was the first thing the deputy sheriff looked at when he placed me under arrest,' said Tom Strickland, his eyes dumbly perplexed Colonel Todhunter, one chamber of my pistol was empty. I reckon I must surely have met Stam on the road and killed him.
 "Tom,' said Colonel Todhunter, al- most pleadinSly, whatever way Stan Tucker was killed he got one shot at the man that killed him. His own weapon was a-layin' right at his hand when they found him. and one bullet had been fired from it. In Gods name you must have some sort of recollec- tion of the shooin' scrape It's the truth I'm tryin' to get at, Tom;. the