Mexico Missouri message., 1917-11-01
CHAPTER XVII.
In Sunrise Gulch,

William Starbuck drew the surgeon
aside after the first aid had been rem
dered, and Smith, still unconscious,
had been carried from the makeshift
operating table in the commissary to
Williams cot in the Office shack.
"How about 1t, DocT asked the
mine owner bluntly.
The surgeon shook his head doubt
fully.
"I can't say. He'll be rather lucky
If he doesn't make 1t, won't he?"
Starbuck remembered that the doc
tor had come out in the auto with the
police captain and the two plain
clothes men.
"Hackerman has been talking2" he
querled.
The surgeon nodded. "He told me
on the way out. If were In Smiths
place, I'd rather pass out with bull
let in my lung. Wouldn't you?"
Starbuck was frowning sourly.
Suppose you make it a case of sus-
pended judgment, Doc" he suggested.
"The few of us here who know any
thing about 1t are giving John the
benefit Of the doubt. They'll have to
show me, and half q dozen of us, be-
fore they can send him over the road"
"He knew they were after him"
"Sure thing; and he had all the
chance he needed to make his get
away. He was shot while he was
trying to get between and stop the
war and keep others from getting
killed"
"It's pity" said the surgeon, glanc-
ing across at the police captain to
whom Colonel Baldwin was appealing.
"Theyll put him in the hospital cell
at the Jail, and that will cost him
whatever slender chance he might 9th
erwlse have to pull through"
Starbuck looked up quickly. "Tell
'em he can't be moved, Doc Dan," he
urged suddenly. And then: you're
Dick Maxwell's family physician, and
Colonel Dexter's, and mine. Surely
you can do that much for us?"
81 can, and 1 WILL" said the surgeon
promptly.
Three days after the wholesale ar
rest at the dam, Brewster gossip had
fairly outworn itself telling and re-
telling the story Of how the High Line
charter had been saved; of how Craw-
ford Stanton's bold ruse of hiring an
ex-train-robber to impersonate a fed
eral-court officer had fallen through
leaving Stanton and his confederates,
ruthlessly abandoned by the un-
named principals, languishing bailless
in jail; Of how Smith, the hero of all
these occasions, was still lying at the
| point of death in the office shack at
the construction camp, and David Kin
zie, once more in keen pursuit Of the
loaves and fishes, was combing the
market for odd shares Of the stock
which was now climbing swiftly oul
| of reach. But at this climax or ex
haustlon-or satiety-came a distinct
ly new set of thrills, more titillating
II possible, than all the others com
bined-
It was on the morning Of the thiro
day that the Herald announced the
return of Mr.. Josiah Richlander from
the Topaz; and in the marriage no
tices of the same issue the breakfast
table readers Of the newspaper
learned that the multimilionaire'i
daughter had been privately married
| the previous evening to Mr.. Tuckel
Jibbey. Two mining spectators wer'
chuckling over the news in the Hophri
House grill when a third man cam'
in to join them.
"What's the joker" queried the new
conner; and when he was shown tn
marriage item, he nodded gravely
'9That's all right; but the Herald mai
didn't get the full flavor Of 1t. 1t wa
a sort of runaway match, 1t seems
the fond parent wasn't invited or con
suited"
81 don't see that the fond parent ha
any kick coming" said the one VIII
had sold Jibbey a promising prospec
hole on Topaz mountain two days ear
lier. "The young fellows got all kind
Of money"
"I know the land broker put II
"But they're whispering 1t around tina
Mr.. Richlander had other plans TO
his daughter. They also say that jill
bey wouldn't stay to face the music
that he left on the midnight train Las
night a few hours after the wedding
SO as not to be among those presen
when the old man should blow In"
''WhatY'-in a chorus Of two-"iei
his wifef" !,
"That's what they say. But that
only one Of the new and startlin
things that isn't in the morning paper
: Have you heard about Smith,
: haven't you been up long enough yeti
~ heard yesterday that he was b.
Ginning to mend" replied the breal
: faster on the left.
CTo BIZ CoNTINUEDA