Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-09-13
SUNDAY MAGAZINE FOR SEPTEMBER 49, 1914
THE JEWEL OF JAFF JEWELL

idea to send him up a sleeping powder, to
be taken Immediately after supper, in
third of glass of water, Hold grinned tooth
1essly.
4Don't worry" snapped the Sheriff. @You
won't be asked to take any chances. I'll
find full-sized man for the job-if there's
one in the county,
AAnd after he's smoked out what's your
program
@Shoot him down like dog-unless he
surrenders,' answered Bates with Napo-
leonic grimness.
Hold pared himself slice of tobacco. @An-
other easy thing, in the dead of night with
Jaff on the lope and working the triggers of
fifty-seven varieties of man-killing inven-
tons"
put Bates was not to be ridiculed out of
his strategy, in spite of his own mis-
givings, and at midnight the execution of it
began Baled hay, chopped into portable
sections and soaked with kerosene, was the
finder selected.
4Now, Men, said the Sheriff solemnly to
the assembled deputies, "a word before you
is hell, as old Sherman said. don't want
you to think of the Jaff Jewell you've al
ways known, or the Jaff Of last Christmas,
who touched our hearts with the gifts for
imaginary people. Think of the fend who in
cold blood Drained old man Search and his
wife, and when he comes out in the light of
the fire, close up and shoot him down-un-
less he should be unarmed and making I'm
mistakable signs of surrender
1t was repugnant work for men most of
whom would have baked at drowning out
woodchuck; but each one dutifully Shout
dered his portion of hay, and the line, lighted
only by the stars twinkling through the half
grown leaves above, wound noiselessly to
point within hundred yards of their ulti-
mate goal.
Dan Kelsey, the farmers boy who had
volunteered for the hazardous part of the
program, continued up the hillside with his
bundle of hay, in the direction of Jaff's
fortress. The others waited with quickened
hearts; for discovery unquestionably meant
death for the youth. Kelsey, however, re-
turned in safety-not once but again and
again.
On his eighth or ninth trip, though, he
was gone longer than usual, and presently
there showed between the black boles of the
trees glow that quickly waxed into leap
ing mass of flames. Bates ground out an inn
precation between set teeth, and when Kel-
sey finally reappeared savagely demanded
an explanation of the premature ignition.
uleiu HSll tLSNSlel liic yOulll,
breathing heavily. "Jaff done it, after
pushin the hay back from the WALL
did you see him?"
@Yes. When l got up there he was stand
in back in the shadder of tree"
@Then why in the name of God didn't you
shoot him?s beloved the Sheriff.
Kelsey, with downcast eyes, was dumb for
an interval. Then he answered with witch
ing lips, Because because he didn't shoot
me when he had a chance to-
Bates glared at the delinquent for mo-
ment, but spoke in milder tone than was
expected. 3You are young, Dan-too young
for man hunting Well excuse you from
further service. The stuff is off, Men. Go
to bed
At eight o'clock the next morning the
spiteful barking of the hand arms and the
sullen detonations of the howitzer began
again, silencing the sweet whistle of meadow
larks, frightening the cardinals from thicket
to thicket on flaming wings, and poisoning
April's sylvan incense with the acrid fumes
of burnt powder. The theory that the high
velocity .3O's would riddle the cabin like
hatbox had long since been exploded; but
it was still hoped that out of the swarm of
steel jacketed bullets there might be one
that, in its chance-guided, incalculable de-
Elections, would search out the body of Jaff
Jewell.