The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1914-05-28

III -
M The BehAsAerxfi Company.
80
old Michigan raised a cry did Janet
turn to see the open door behind her
Thirty feet away Aurelie was run
ming. She had thrown her furs from
her, scattering the roses among the
frozen clods. and was flying onward to
her old home 200 yards across the field.
The deputies were shouting. Arne saw
her now. He turned to follow. Janet
sprang out, a cry on her lips. Old
Michigan uprose, calling his pleadings.
Janet stopped. There was nothing
she could do. The panorama was spread
perore her like a moving picture: the
bleak corn-stubbled field. the gra little
house detached in the winter sunlight,
a film of smoke owe its gable; n on
all three sides Of 1t a struggling line of
men advancing, firing here and there,
The spatter of shots th~ickened; it be-
came a volley; the blue smoke hid the
farther fence, the masses of people far
beyond under the leafless trees. From
the gable of Lindstrom's house came a
single report. sharp fBm it's
a man of the line went down.
h saw Harlan coming with the
posse from the other side. Her broth
er was running faster, but Aurelie was
Tar beyond him flying on with her old
"ooulanQ ~uIneneSS. Inen mother fg-
ure caught Janet's eye. Wiley Curran
had leaped the fence from among the
deputies and had outstripped them. He
was shouting; and the angle Of his
course would cut Aurelie off from the
house. Janet cried out to him. She
saw the men beyond the house. I'M
der Harlan's orders, stopping to fire
cody, deliberately, at the window from
which L1ndstrom was Kidding the dep
uties.
Then came the crash of a volley loud
er than all else. And she saw her roth
the veil of smoke. He was staring at
q patch of color, maroon and glistening
back plumes. against the gray Of the
guns and the wintry woods.
In the moments intefmission fol-
lowing the volley they saw a man step
gering in the acrid haze Of the powder
smoke and then coming on alone, up
right. majestic.
Aurelie was flying to him. The out
law did not stop-she flung herself
agains thin, clasping him, looking up;
and John merely put his stub Of an
arm about the girl. holding her close,
as If to shelter her. and came or his
swinging III to his other
shoulder as he strobe.
He fired squarely into the line Of his
advancing enemies. A man dropped; he
fired again. again. again. cool, sure.
merciless, the mutter Of a prayer upon
his lips, the pleadings of the girl with
IN his ears. But he would not stop.
The God who ruled above mans petty
justice was with him; he had come
forth to save his wife and children from
the hurricane Of bullets slivering his
home, but he yielded nothing.
The girl, clinging to him, was trying
to reach his neck. seeking to draw him
down, to kiss his gaunt lined cheek, it
| Sannn6 E a ND hn 1tI et@>. - Tl,-..#-.--.
his left arm swing the rifle down until
he was clasping Aurelie, listening to
her, moved by her. Then from the
groups of men about the cottage, who
could not see what those on this side
could. came the crash Of another
volley. From the fence Janet saw Cur
ran running on, reaching out his hand,
and then stopping to stare through the
thickening smoke about the cottage.
Janet knew a great silence had come.
Van Harris line of men had stopped.
They were staring-all the hundreds
Of people were staring. Janet knew
Ltndstrom was down, riddled by the
deputies behind him. And that Aurelie
had fallen not 20 yards from her old
home. The roses she had chung to as
she ran lay red and scattered about her
on the frozen clods. Curran was kneel-
ing by her. And the silence held as if
earth and sky-the gray lonely land
with a CLINT Of sun through the clouds
had hushed to hear, had followed to
hold the agony that broke from Cur
rams heart.
When Janet and Arne reached them
Curran had turned Aure1ie's face up
ward. Curran himself IA bloody from
a tassel of a wound torn across his
forehead. Men We're in and about
the bullet-swept and burning house.
kicking away the barricade Of boxes
from the door. Under the window they
found Ladeau dead, his lips forever
sealed, and in another room lay Albert
the peddler, his piteous life come to
the inevitable nothingness. The wom-
an children, burrowed in the cellar,
cold. starved. were unhurt.
But on the frozen field a group had
formed. Curran knelt to watch his
child's face. Harlan had dismounted
and was staring. He could not speak
as Curran wiped the blood from his
eyes and muttered:
She kept crying for you to stop.
Couldn't you see? Couldn't you hear?
Crying to you, Harlan, to stop. That
she loved you-with all her soul she
loved you'll"
Then he turned to the others. Your
machine. Arne! Quick!"
STOPPING, he seized the girls body.
The father chung to her and it was as
If the w were fighting for her pos
session. Then Harlan whiEled back,
W. AN DioSa AiOIl bSI lips STAINING
his shoulder. Keep back, Wiley. The
machine--quick Home" And
as they all ran. Curran trying to keep
her hand in his. as it hung from Har
lan's arm, the younger man kept NUT
tering: Il didn't know-God help me
Wiley| didn't know!".
They thrust Old Michigan aside in
the car and were in. The two men
seemed against struggling to hold her
as the machine ground off through the
field. Janet was conscious of the
awed white faces-thousands of them
Only they Knew that "Michigan's girl
was being borne from her old home now
shot-riddled and burning, and tina the
outlaw Of the Pocket was dead. They
could not hear Mich's bewildered
mumblings in the car, or Wiley Cur
ran, as she shifted his child's body
from the widening pools of blood on
the cushions. whispering: Calling to
you. boy, just kept on ~going-calline
that she loved you'll"
The car was in the Van Hart yard
Harlan dragged his burden from them