The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1915-03-03

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Rose and SO throw Judith back into
| his, Marrophat's, arms.
| Poor, deluded fool!
Such was the private comment Of
| Marrophat's master.
! For all that, it was the man and not
his daughter, whom Urine designated
to lead the expedition, cunningly
| counting on Judith's chagrin 20 work
upon her passions and excite her to
one last, mad, blind attempt that
| should prove successful.
Smiling his secret smile, Urine an
nounced his decision at the last mo-
ment, while Hopi Jim waited with his
| horses and an assistant--one Texas
for whose utter innocence of scruples
Mr.. Slade unhesitatingly vouched.
Sullenly submissive, at least in out.
ward seeming, Judith bowed to this de.
| cision, marched out of the car, and
suffered Marrophat to help her mount
her horse
| Now, deliberately, as the little caval
cade rode through the moonlit desert
night, the girl Unanswered her hoHse
10 the side of Hopi Jim, and then
dropped back, permitting Marrophat
10 lead the way with Texas.
| AS deliberately she set herself to
work upon the bandits susceptibility
to her charms.
| Within an hour she had him ready
20 do anything to win her smile.
| In that first rush of golden day a.
.hwart the land, the party came quietly
into the town of Mesa, riding slowly in
order that the noise of their approach
might not warn the fugitives, who
| Hopi asserted confidently would still
! be sound asleep in the accommoda-
tons offered by the towns one hotel.
| 1t was to be termed town only in
courtesy, thix Mesa: a struggling
street of shacks, ramshackle relics of
what had once been a promising COM
munity, the halfway station between
The railroad and the mining camps
secreted in the Businesses of the Paint
ed hills-camps now abandoned, their
very names almost faded out of the
memory OF mankind.
Midway in this string of edifices the
hotel stood-a rough, implanted, wood
en- edifice, mainly veranda and bar
room as to it's lower floor.
jealousy Judith watched the win
dows of the second floor: and she
alone of the four detected the face that
showed for one brief instant we'll back
in the shadows beyond one of the bed
room windows-a face that glimmered
momentarily with the pallor of a
| ghosts against the background of that
obscurity, and then was gone.
Her eyes alone, indeed, could have
recognized the features of Alan Law
In that fugitive glimpse.
Two sentences exchanged between
Hopi Jim and blear-eyed fellow
whom he reused from sodden slumbers
behind the bar sealed their confidence
with conviction: the three fugitives
were in fact guests of the house, &C.
cupying two of the three rooms that
composed it's upper story.
In the rush that followed up the
narrow stairway, Judith led with such
spirit that not even Marrophat sus-
pected her revolver was poised solely
with intent to shoot from his hand his
own revolver the. instant he leveled
| it at human target
| Closed and locked doors confronted
them; and their summons educed no
response; while the first door, when
! broken in by holesculed kick, dis
covered nothing more satisfactory
than an empty room, It's bed bearing
the imprint of a woman's body, but
| that woman gone.
From the one window, looking down
| the side of the house, Texas announced
| that the woman had not escaped by
| jumping out.
So it seemed that the three must
| have had warning of their arrival,
after all; and presumably were now
| herded together in the adjoining room,
which looked out over the veranda
roof, waiting in fear and trembling
| for the assault that must soon come
and in fact Immediately did
| But it met with more stubborn re-
sistance than had been anticipated.
| The door had been barricaded from
| within - REINFORCED by furniture
| placed against it. Four minutes and
| the united efforts of four men (includ-
ing the bleary loafer of the barroom)
| were required to overcome it's inert re-
| sistance. But even when it was down,
| the room was found to be as empty as
the first.
Only the fingers of two hands grip
( ping the edge of the veranda roof
| showed the way the fugitives had
| flown; and these vanished instantly as
| the room was invaded.
| Followed swift rush of hoofs down
! the dusty street, and chorus of bias
| phemy in the hotel hallway: for Jul
dith had headed the concerted rush
| for the staircase and contrived to
| block it for a full half minute by pre-
| tending to stumble and twist her
| ankle
In spite of that alleged injury, she
never limped, and wasn't a yard be-
hind the first who broke from the