The Tomahawk. [volume] (White Earth, Becker County, Minn.) 1903-192?, 1916-08-31


to bank cashiers daughter to learn
where the loot was hidden. For all
these situations Bowling had stream
| Of talk that never failed to amuse and
disarm. Billy Gard had asked the
department for his help on the moon
sinners case and Bowling had fallen
into the plan with all the enthusiasm
Of adventurous youth.
The features Of the Jail breaker for
those of Bowling. So had preparation
been made for his coming. Gard had
laid his plans with an understanding
of the habit Of the mountaineer to
hide the fugitive. He had figured that
such fugitive might get into the
| confidence of those iron men of few
words and fitch from them their Sc
crets. With the right culprits behind
the bars the backbone Of this defiance
of the law might be broken.
Dowling's stream of talk won the
friendship of Ty Jones and his sons
as it had won his wife. The fugitive
was tucked away in the hills and fed
by the mountaineers. He came to
know the intimates of the Jones fam
| them for days and weeks. He hiber-
| mated with others of his kind for he
found the hills full of men in hiding.
He became visitor at many a cabin
and eventually struck the rock that
responded to his confidence.
A young mountaineer named Ed
Hill maintained an active still high up
in the mountains-a virgin still that
had never known the dissertation of a
raid. Hill was high spirited and COM
panionable, unlike most of his neigh
bors. His was the soul of poet, a
lover Of the wilds, a patriot of the
mountains. The flame of adventure,
the love Of danger, the belief in the
individual rights of the mountaineer,
made him a moving spirit among the
men who battled the government.
Ed Hill told the fugitive the whole
story of the killing of Tom Reynolds
and the shooting of Sam Lunsford. He
told of the determination to rid the
mountains Of Todd, the livery stable
man, and to preserve for the men of
the Cumberlands the right to do as
they chose in their own retreats.
It seemed that Of all the men of the
mountains who made moonshine whis-
ky, there were but four who were
willing to go the limit of spilling the
blood of their fellows in resisting the
law. Hill was one of these and saw
his acts as those of the man who
fights for his country. Ty Jones, con-
trary to the suspicious of Sam Luns-
ford, always advised against violence.
heavy-faced, dull-witted lad, who was
possessed OF the desire to kill, to be
known among his fellows as a bad
man. This younger Jones it was who
had aimed his fathers sawed-off shot
gun at Sam Lunsford as that hulking
figure Of man swayed back and forth
as he rocked the baby that suffered
from collie, The patriot Hill, Will
Jones the born murderer, a father
and son by the name of Hinton, had
been the murderers of Tom Reynolds.
There were no others who would go
so far as to kill to avenge their fam
cied grievances.
The summer was dragging to its
close as the conversational special
agent got his information together.
The yellow was stealing into the trees
of the hillsides when Billy Gard, he
whose health had been broken behind
the ribbon counter, came back to Ten
ney's for another few weeks in the
open. He wandered into the woods
and met the fugitive from the South
Carolina jail. The jail bird and the
ribbon counter clerk talked long to-
gether and when they parted the plans
were laid for the nipping off of the
men who would murder for their stills.
1t was a week later and the quiet
of after-midnight rested upon the lit
tie mountain town Of Wheeler. In
such towns there are no all-night in
dustries, no street cars to drone
through deserted thoroughfares, not
even an arc light to sputter at street
crossings. There is but the occasion
al stamping Of horse in it's stall or
the baying of watch dog in answer
to the howl of a wolf on the hillside.
But murder was planned to take place
sthat night in Wheeler and A. Spauld-
ing Bowling knew all about it.
As the town slept four stealthy
figures crept down the trail that cuts
across the point of the Hunchback.
Soft-footedly, rifles in hand, they
passed down side street beneath
the dense shade of giant sycamores.
It was but three blocks from the
woods to Main street. Reaching this
artery of the town, two of the men
crouched in the shadow while two
others crossed the street and went a
block further, turning to the left. Each
group then shifted itself a hundred
feet to the left and paused again.
So stationed the four men found
themselves in front and back of Todd's
livery stable. The building itself sat
back a little from the street. On the
ground floor were the stalls for the
horses and the sheds where the
o2ono uoro ctored Overhead were