Sioux County pioneer. (Fort Yates, Sioux County, N.D.) 1914-1929, 1915-02-12

Taxed vigilance He stood there pos
sibly thirty seconds. then sharp fu-
sillade of clear reports barked out and
was shattered by the hills into long
reverberation. With 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
ned. The mountain was again as
quiet as it had been at dawn. Inside.
J 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:
1 well. they've got me-"
An ordinary mountaineer would
have been carried home to die in the
darkness Of a 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 o;
the wilderness. removed from rail-
road by score of semi-perpendicular
miles, fanatic had once decided to
found 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 small, but model hos
pital, with 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 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 WE'LL" he said feebly.
there's a job for you two boys. l
reckon you know what 1t is?"
They nodded. and Asberry whis-
pered a name:
Samson South?"
eyes," Purvy spoke in whisper;
but the old vindictiveness was not
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.
"I'll 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 old
staccato tone Of command, tone
; which brought obedience. "If gel
,, we'll have other plans. Never mind
what they are. That's my business
II 1 don't die, leave him alone, until
give other orders.
IF get we'll and Samson South il
killed meanwhile l won't live long
either. 1t would be my life for his
Keep close to him. The minute yor
hear of my death-get him." He
paused again, then supplemented
| "You two will find something mighty
interestin' in my will"
It was afternoon when Purvy
reached the hospital, and, at nightfal
of the same day, there arrived ut his
stores entrance, on stumbling, hard
ridden mules. several men, followed
BY two tawny hounds whose long ears
tapped over their lean jaws, ani
whose eyes were listless and tired. bu,
| whose black muzzles wrinkled anC
shifted with that sensitive instinct
| which follows the man scent. The ex
sherift's family were instituting pro
\ ceedings Independent of the chiefs or
dere. The next morning this party
| plunged into the mountain tangle anl
beat the cover with the bloodhounds
in leash.
The two gentle-faced dogs picked
their way between the Towering rho
dodendrons, the glistening laurels, the
feathery pine sprouts and the moss
covered rocks. They went gingerlJ
and alertly on ungainly, cushioned
feet. Just as their masters were de
spairing they came to place directly
over the store, where branch had
been bent back and hitched to cleal
the outlook and where a boot hee
had crushed the moss. There one Of
them raised his nose high into the
air, opened his mouth, and let out q
> long, deep-chested bay of discovery.
CHAPTER ".