Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1915-11-25

- eSASsSSSsM
100 - &S
Slowly Three of the New Arrivals
Hitched Their Way Forward.
one who was about to fire waited one
minute longer, there would have been
more deaths than the single one. His
colleagues would then have been, like
himself, covering their respective vic
tims-victims who confidently thought
themselves executioners. But as 1t
was, they had not quite yet worked
themselves into positions untram-
meled by intervening rock and timber.
The man who fired first knew this,
for he had not heard the perfectly i'm
itated quaver of "scritch-owls" which
was to signify a common readiness.
But as he had eyed his crouching vic
tim across his rifle-sights he had also
been able to look beyond him, and had
seen the figure of Cal Douglas pause
at the lighted window He knew that
to wait a moment would be to wait too
long. So the others had to fire blindly
through the black underground at
speeding shadows-and they missed.
The fleeing murder squad melted
back into the black timber, and some
of them, signaling with the call of
frog and owl, came together in tenn
porary safety. They dared not go to
their own horses, since they might be
diCPnunVaH IN =
that led into the McBriar country
would be watched. II they were to
carry away unpunctured skins they
must fee the other way-into the Ha-
vey territory and astride stolen Havey
horses. 1t was every man for himself,
and they had not paused to count
noses. They hurriedly swung them
selves into saddles at the remote end
Of the line of hitched mounts and gal
Hoped pell-meu down the, road toward
the cabin of Fletch McNash.
When the theft of the horses was
discovered Anse Havey sent pursuing
parties to ride the roads in both direc-
tions.
1t had seemed to Havey wiser to
withhold his warning from all save
those whom he needed to use. To all
the rest the affair had come without
notice, and the hue and cry which fol
lowed the ritie-shots was genuine in
it's excitement.
But in a very few moments the
pandemonium fell away and sullen-
ness supplanted the shouting. The
mountains behind, where several men
were stealthily seeking escape and
many others were stalking them, lay
silent in the moonlight.
A hundred yards beyond the win
dow a small and inquisitive knot Of
men gathered around a figure that
had hunched forward, sprawliGg on a
cooked rifle. Someone turned the fig
ure up and Strengthened it's limbs so
that they should not stiffen in such
grOtesque attitude. The face, with
the yellow lanternlight shining down
on it, was the face of boy of twenty.
Its thin lips were set in a grim smile
of satisfaction, for death had over
taken him without a suspicion of its
coming.
Perhaps, had photograph of his
retina been taken, it would have dis
closed the portrait of Cal Douglas
pausing at the open window.
Hits little Nash Watt!" exclaimed
a surprised voice, using the diminu-
tive which in the mountains takes the
place of junior and stays with a man
well on in life. The victim who had
been designated to avenge the death
of Noah Watt had been Noah Watt's
younger brother,
Meanwhile the pursuing hOrSemen
were gaining slowly on those that fed.
The murder squad hao failed and
must bear back to Milt Mc8riar, If
they ever got back, narrative of
frustrated effort, They were bitterly
angry and proportionately desperate
So, as they clattered along the empty
road, meeting no enemy whom they
could shoot down in appeasement Of
their wrath, they satisfied themselves
with raising their war cry for the ben
eft of the sleeping cabins.
A little distance beyond Fetch Nc
Nash's place lay cross-trail by which
they might find a circuitous way back
over the ridge, but it was too steep
and broken to ride. They could make
better time on foot over the "roughs,''
so there they abandoned their mounts
and plunged into the timber When
the pursuers came up with the dis
carded horses they realized that fur
Their effort in the nighttime would be
bootless. Yet, since the heaving
tanks and painting nostrils Of the
horses testified that they had been
only a few minutes late, they took a
last chance and plunged into the
thicket.
There a single defiant shot, sent