Mexico Missouri message., 1917-11-08
CHAPTER xxvlI-contlnued.

lVta EG OuI VI uuAEr LulO lIOlu bhS
dealer In ranches. you know the story
6isnf wAs going around about his be-
ting an escaped convict, or something
OF thzt sort2 II gets its focal color
1fafs morning. There's n sheriff here
Graua back East somewhere--came in
ON the early train; names Macauley,
and he's got the requlsitlon papers.
nut Smiths fooled him good and
Olenty-"
Again the chorus united In an eager
query
~H0wT
"He died last nlght--a little past
midnight. They say they're going to
nury him out at the damon the Job
that he pulled through and stood on
Efs feet. One of Williams quarrymen
drlfted In with the story Just a little
while ago. I'm here to bet you even
EnOuey that the whole town goes to
the funeral"
Great gosh 2" said the man who
VVaS crunching the burnt bacon. "Say
chats tough, Bixbyl don't care what
he'd run away from back East; he
ives q man, right. Harding has been
telling everybody how Smith wouldn't
ae4 the posse open fire on that gang
6G hold-ups last Friday night; how he
chased across on the dam staglngs
alone and unarmed to try to serve the
warrants on 'em and make 'em stop
ffrtpG. 1t was glorious, but 1t wasn't
-Svar-~
To this the other mining man added
q hNrd word. Dead" he gritted !;
~azd only a few hours earlier the girl
had taken snap judgment on him and
'KHarrSed somebody else! That's the
woman OF ttI"
~oh. hold on, Stryker," the ranch
broker protested. "Don't you get too
strings to that bow, and the longest
and sorriest one runs out to Colonel
BaIdwin's place on Little creek, I'm
thinking. The HIGHLANDER business
was only an incident. Stanton told
inc that much"
As the event proved, the seller of
panch lands would have lost his bet on
Eiie funeral attendance. For some I'M
&nown reason the notice Of Smiths
bC4aAA dlu uOL upPCdA Tic ullSlhOOh
0apers, and only few people went out
i'm aatOs to see the coffin lowered by
'wuI1AEas' workmen into a grave on
'Sae mesa behind the construction
'caAzD; a grave among others where
;She victims of an early industrial ac-
.efdent at the dam had been buried.
Those who went out from town came
i6Aek rather scandalized. There had
Heen q most hard-hearted lack of the
common fOrmalities, they said; a
cheap coffin, no minister, no mourners,
GOt even the poor fellows business
associates In the company he had
y2nUght so hard to save from defeat and
extinction. 1t was a shamel
W5th this report passing from lip to
Np In Brewster, another bit of gossip
30 the effect that StarbucE and Still
Sngs had gone East with the disap-
,sOinted sheriff, ''to clear Smiths men,
sary," as the street-talk had 1t, called
GortA no little comment. In the Hophra
House cafe on the evening of the
Euneral day Stryker, the mining spec
Alator, was loud in his criticisms Of
ehe High Line people.
"YesT" he rallied; "a couple of 'em
viii go on junketing trip East to
Ac2ear his memory after they've let
their +WOps' at the dam bury him like
yellow dOgl And this Rlchlander
'eyoman; they say she'd known him
ever since he and she were school
zfds together; she went down and
took the train with her father just
Sts04t the dine they were planting the
,QOor devF."
Three weeks Of the matchless Au,
gust weather had slipped by without
EneS4eat other than the indictment by
the grand jury Of Crawford Stanton
Barney M'Graw, and a number of 9th
,eEs on a charge OF conspiracy; and
WILLIAMS, unmOlested since the nigh
at the grand battle In which Sheriff
Harding had figured as the master oi
the hunt, had completed the greaj
dfEch system and was installing the
sA1RchInery In the lately finished power
&0Rse-
Over the hills from the northern
uEBsuntain boundary OF the Timanyon
y wandering prOspector had come will
q VagUe tale of a new strike in Sunrist
<sQIeh. a placer district worked Ou
and abandoned twenty years earlier II
NAs height of the Red Butte excite
smzeaf- Questioned closely, the tale
.1Efneer confessed that he had no proc
-unaffEVe OF the strike but In the hill
sthe had found O well-wOrn trail, latel.
GAed. leading to the old camp, ant
Gk9G one of the deserted cabins II
1Ehs guIch he had seen smoke arising
As 90 the fact Of the trail the wan
sezeEfng tale-bearer was not at fault
On ehe most perfect OF the late-in
AwEuHt mornings a young woman, cla'
i'm @erviceable khaki. and keeping he
,SsS~tnoy headgear and buff top-boots II
.munzdE countenaAce by riding astrtde II