Gilpin observer., 1915-09-23
AN EVEN DIVIDE
BY ELLSWORTH LEWIS.


"Well?" queried Mr.. James Monroe
Wallace as his son Philip came
slouching into the library and dropped
into chair with tired look.
You wanted to see me, father?"
"Humph! Philip, you don't amount
to putty"
Right you are. father"
81 think of fishworm every time
see you"
And feel like one. But there's
another side to it. If l am fishworm
l am a harmless one"
The young man rose and took two
or three turns around the room. and
then halted to say:
Father. should l make five thou
winning a good wife, what will the
bridal gift be-"
"a thirty-thousand brownsrone
front"
Thanks in advance"
When Philip left the city he rode a
| hundred miles by rail and got off at
a town of 1000 inhabitants. Why?
He could not answer.
At the hotel they wondered who the
young man was and what had brought
him there. but he made no explana-
| tions. He must make $4,000 and find
bride within a year, and he realized
1t would require heap of thinking.
He was in the office of the hotel
one morning when the telephone rang
and the operator at Benton, ten miles
away, said: Tell the sheriff that the
bank was robbed last night"
"Of how much?" the young man
asked
"The robbers got $4,000 of the
banks money and about the same from
the safe deposit vaults"
And have the officers there got a
clue?"
They know there were three rob-
bers and that they passed the house of
farmer three miles out an hour after
midnight"
! II sce"
They were in one-horse buggy
and had driven so fast that the horse
dropped dead"
ANY reward?"
"Yes. 81 900 for each of the robbers
and $1,000 for the return of the
money"
Young Wallace did not start for the
sheriff's Office on the run. 1t was
laughable even to himself. that a
young man who had been charac-
terized by his father as a fishworm
and totally without energy should find
himself breathing like runner as he
thought of pitting himself against
three desperate men. That was what
it might come to.
After having arrived at this deci
sion, the putty man" went to the
livery stable and got a horse and
buggy and started for Benson. He
reached the town to find it seething
with excitement. Officers and anna
teurs were on the hunt, and the
farmer who had seen the robbers and
witnessed the fate of their horse had
to tell the story over again a score
OF times. When he had learned where
this farmer lived, young Wallace
drove out there. He asked no ques-
tions OF anyone.
If his theory was correct, the rob.
bers would find safe hiding place
for the plunder and then separate and
come back later to divide the spoils
They would realize that every town
for fifty miles around would be noti
fled before noon. They would have
to conceal the plunder at once and
within a mile or two of where they
lost their horses. AS every farmer
kept his barn locked, and a watchdc-
besides, the fellows would be driven
back to the strawstacks or the woods
Philip drove back to Benson to
think it over On the way. he met q
young woman driving a horse and
buggy In passing each other they
almost came to halt and the young
man was SO attracted by the girls
agreeable personality that. for the mo
ment he almost forgot his role of ANA
teur sleuth.
him by boy. He was asked to cal
on Miss Hazel Drayton at certain
address. He found her to be the gir
he had passed on the highway. He
had scarcely given her his name whcr
she said
"You are looking for the bank plum
der?"
"Well?"
Both of US know where it is
Perhaps"
Let's work in partnership and di
vide the reward"
1--WE may find the plunder but not
the robbers. You see. / must have
the five thousand to hold father tc
his promise" Then he proceeded to
tell her all about It,