Mexico Missouri message., 1914-12-10

Taxed vigilance. He STOOD tnSre pos
sibly thirty seconds. then a sharp fu-
sillade OF clear reports barked out and
was shattered by the hills into n long
reverberation. With a hand clasped
to his chest, Purvy turned, walked to
the middle of the floor, and fell.
The henchmen rushed to the open
sash. They leaped out and plunged
up the mountain. tempting the assas-
sins fire, but the assassin was salts
fed. The mountain was again as
quiet as II had been at dawn. Inside.
at the middle of the store. Jesse Purvy
shifted his head against his daugh-
ter's knee and said, as one stating an
expected event:
well. they've got me-"
An ordinary mountaineer would
have been carried home to die In the
darkness of dirty and windowless
shack. The long-suffering star OF Jesse
Purvy ordained otherwise. He might
go under or he might once more beat
HIS way back and out of the quick
sands of death. At all events, he would
fight for life to the last gasp.
Twenty miles away in the core OF
the wilderness, removed from a rail-
road by a score of semi-perpendicula
miles, fanatic had once decided to
found a school.
Now a faculty of ten men taught
such as cared to come such things as
they cared to learn. Higher up the
hillside stood a small, but model hos
pital, with q modern operating table
and a case of surgical instruments,
which, 1t was said, the state could not
surpass.
To this haven Jesse Purvy. the muir
der lord, was borne in litter carried
on the shoulders of his dependents.
Here, as his steadfast guardian star
decreed. he found two prominent med
ical visitors, who hurried him to the
operating table. Later he was re-
moved to q white bed, with the June
sparkle in his eyes, pleasantly modu-
lated through drawn blinds, and the
June rustic and bird chorus in his
ears-and his own thoughts IN his
brain.
Conscious, but In great pain, Purvy
beckoned Jim Asberry and Aaron Hol-
lis. his chiefs of bodyguard, to his bed
side and waved the nurse back out OF
hearing.
"If | don't get WELL" he said feebly
there's a Job for you two boys.
reckon you know what it ISL"
They nodded, and Asberry whis
pered name:
Samson South?" I,
Eyes," Purvy spoke in a whisper
but the old vindictiveness was moi
smothered. you got the old man,
reckon you can manage the cub. II
you don't he'll get you both one day.
The two henchmen scowled
IN git him tomorrer," growled AS
berry. Thar hain't no sort of use
in a-waitin'."
mol" For an instant Purvy's voice
rose out of its weakness to its ole
staccato tone OF command, a tone
which brought obedience. IF l ge
we'll l have other plans. Never minC
what they are. That's my business
If don't die. leave him alone, unit
| give other orders.
| IF get we'll and Samson South II
killed meanwhile | won't live Ions
either. 1t would be my life for his
Keep close to him. The minute yo,
hear of my death-get him." II,
paused again. then supplemented
"You two will find something might.
interestin' in my will"
1t was afternoon when Purv.
reached the hospital, and, at nightfal
of the same day, there arrived at hi
stores entrance. on stumbling, hard
ridden mules, several men. followe,
by two tawny hounds whose long ear
iapped over their lean Jaws, an
whose eyes we're listless and tired, bu
whose black. muzZles wrinkled an
shifted with that sensitive instinc
which follows the man scent. The e,
sheriff's family were instituting pre-
ceedings independent of the chiefs oil
ders. The next morning this part
plunged into the mountain tangle an
beat the cover with the bloodhound
in leash.
The two gentle-faced dogs pickle
their way between the Towering rht
dodendrons, the glistening laurels, tn
feathery pine sprouts and the mos!
covered rocks They went gingerl
and alertly on ungainly, cushlone
feet. Just as their masters we're d,
spairing they came to place directl
over the store, where a branch ha
been bent back and hitched to clea
the outlook and where boot het
had crushed the moss. There one c
them raised his nose high into tn
air, opened his mouth. and let out
; long, deep-chested bay of discovery.
CHAPTER ~.