Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1917-11-23
CHAPTER XVII.
In Sunrise GuIch.

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 tc
Williams cot in the office shack.
"How about it, Doc" asked the
mine owner bluntly.
The surgeon shook his head doubt.
fully.
81 can't say. He'll be rather lucky
if he doesn't make it, 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 talking?" he
queried.
The surgeon nodded. "He told me
on the way out. If 1 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 q case of sus
pended judgment, Doc" he suggested
"The few Of us here who know any
thing about it are giving John the
benefit of the doubt. They'll have to
show me, and half a 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 a pity" said the surgeon, glanc-
ing across at the police captain to
whom Colonel Baldwin was appealing.
They'll put him in the hospital cell
at the Jail, and that will cost him
whatever slender chance he might 9th
erwise 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 Maxwel's family physician, and
Colonel Dexters, and mine. Surely
you can do that much for us?"
II 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 fed
eral-court officer had fallen through
leaving Stanton and his confederates,
ruthlessly abandoned by the I'M
named principals, languishing ballless
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
loaves and fishes, was combing the
market for odd shares Of the stock,
which was now climbing swiftly out
OF reach. But at this climax of ex-
haustion-or satiety--came distinct
ly new set of thrills, more titillating,
If possible, than all the others COM
bined-
| 1t was on the morning of the third
day that the Herald announced the
return of Mr.. Josiah Richlander from
the Topaz; and in the marriage no.
tees of the same issue the breakfast
table readers of the newspapers
learned that the multimfllionafre's
daughter had been privately married
the previous evening to Mr.. Tucker
Jibbey. Two mining spectators were
chuckling over the news in the Hophra
House grill when third man came
in to join them.
"What's the joker queried the new
conner; and when he was shown the
marriage item, he nodded gravely.
"That's all right; but the Herald man
didn't get the full flavor Of 1t. 1t was
a sort Of runaway match, 1t seems |;
the fond parent wasn't invited or con-
suited"
81 don't see that the fond parent has
any kick coming" said the one who
had sold Jibbey a promising prospect
hole on Topaz mountain two days ear
lier. 1.-THE young fellows got all kinds
of money"
81 know the land broker put In.
"But they're whispering 1t around that
Mr.. Richlander had other plans for
his daughter. They also say that Jib-
hey wouldn't stay to face the music;
that he left on the midnight train last
night a few hours after the wedding,
so as not to be among those present
when the old man should blow In"
"WhatT-in a chorus Of two-"left
his wifew
"That's what they say. But that's
only one of the new and startling
things that isn't in the morning papers.
Have you heard about Smith?-or
haven't you been up long enough yet"
81 heard yesterday that he was be-
ginning to mend" replied the break
faster on the left.
CTo BB CoNTINUED.l