The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1917-06-08

into waters inhabited by trout was a
heavy fine. Mum was guilty only in
intent but the club keepers swore
falsely, and Peyster Sprowl lawyer
and also the new president OF the Sag
amore Club, pushed the case; and Mum
went to jail, having no money left to
purge his sentence.
O'Hara, wild with rage, wrote, threat
ening Sprowl.
Then Sprowl did a vindictive and
therefore foolish thing: he swore out a
warrant for 0'Hara's arrest, charging
him with blackmail
The case was tried in FoXville, and
O'Hara was acquitted. But chance
word or two during the testimony fright
pOrtunity of his life He went to New
York and scraped up enough money
for his purpose, which was to search
the titles of the lands controlled by the
Sycamore Club.
He worked secretly, grubbing, saving,
starving; he ferreted out the original
grants covering nine-tenths of Sycamore
County he dsinterred the O'Hara
patent of 1850; and then he began to
understand that his title to the entire
Sycamore Club property was worth the
services, on spec, Of any frst-class
Centre Street shyster.
The club got wind of this and appoint
ed Peyster Sprowl, in his capacity of
lawyer and president of the club, to
find out how much Of claim O'Hara
really had. The club Also placed the
emergency fund of one hundred thou
sand dollars at Sprowl's command
with carte-Manche orders to arrest a
suit and satisfy any claim that could
not be beaten by money and talent.
Now it took SprOw very short time
to discover that 0Hara's claim was
probably valid enough to GUST the club
from three-quarters Of its present hold
ings.
He tried to see OHara but the lum-
herman refused to be interviewed, and
promptly began proceedings. He also
made his will; for he was II sick man.
Then he became sicker man, and sus-
pended proceedings and sent for his
little daughter.
Before she arrived he called Mum in,
gave him packet of papers, and made
him burn them before his eyes.
They're the papers in my case" he
said. '-Tm dying; I've fought too hard
l don't want my child to fight when IN
dead. And there's nothing in my claim,
anyway" This was lie, and Mum
suspected it.
When the child Eileen, arrived,
O'Hara was nearly dead, but he gather
ed sufficient strength to shove locked
steel box towards his daughter and tell
her to keep it from Mum, and keep it
locked until she found an honest man
in the world.
The next morning OHara appeared
to be much better. His friend Mum
came to see him; also came Peyster
Sprowl in some alarm, on the matter of
the proceedings threatened. But O'Hara
turned his back on them both and calm
ly closed his eyes and ears to their pres
ence.
Mum went out of the room, but laid
his large, thin ear against the door.
SprowI worried O'Hara for an hour
but, getting no reply from the man in
the bed, withdrew at last with consi-
derable violence.
O'Hara, however, had fooled them
both: he had been dead all the while
The day after the funeral, Sprowl
came back to look for o. Hara's daught-
er; and as he peeped into the door of
the squalid fiat he saw thin, yellow
eyed young man, with bony face, all
furry in promise of the future whiskers,
rummaging through 0Hara's effects
This Young gentleman was Mum.