Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1917-10-05
CHAPTER xxvlI-continued.


dealer in ranches. "You know the story
that was going around about his be-
ing an escaped convict, or something
Of that sort? 1t gets its local color
this morning. There's sheriff here
from back East somewhere-came in
on the early train; names Macauley,
and he's got the requisition papers.
But Smiths fooled him good and
plenty"
Again the chorus united in an eager
query.
"Howr
"He died last night--a little past
midnight. They say they're going to
bury him out at the damon the job
that he pulled through and stood on
its feet. One Of Williams quarrymen
drifted in with the story just little
while ago. I'm here to bet you even
money that the whole town goes to
the funeral"
"Great gosh" said the man who
was crunching the burnt bacon. "Say,
that's tough, BixbyI don't care what
he'd run away from back East; he
was man, right. Harding has been
telling everybody how Smith wouldn't
let the posse open fire on that gang
of hold-ups last Friday night; how he
chased across on the dam stagings
alone and unarmed to try to serve the
warrants on 'em and make 'em stop
firing. II was glorious, but 1t wasn't
war"
To this the other mining man added
a hard word. Dead" he gritted;
"and only a few hours earlier the girl
had taken snap judgment on him and
married somebody else That's the
woman Of 1t ~
"Oh, hold on. Stryker," the ranch
broker protested. "Don't you get too
fierce about that. There are two
strings to that bow, and the longest
and sorriest one runs out to Colonel
Baldwin's place on Little creek, I'm
thinking. The Rlchlander business
was only an incident. Stanton told
me that much"
As the event proved, the seller of
ranch lands would have lost his bet on
the funeral attendance. For some un-
known reason the notice of Smiths
death did not appear in the afternoon
papers, and only a few people went out
in autos to see the coffin lowered by
Williams workmen into a grave on
the mesa behind the construction
camp q grave among others where
the victims of an early Industrial ac-
cldent at the dam, had been buried.
Those who went out from town came
back rather scandalIzed. There had
been a most hard-hearted lack of the
common formalities, they said; q
cheap coffin, no minister, no mourners,
not even the poor fellows business
associates in the company he had
fought so hard to save from defeat and
extinction. II was shamel
with this report passing from lip to
alp in Brewster, another bit Of gossip
to the effect that Starbuck and Still
ings had gone East with the dlsap-
pointed sheriff, ito clear Smiths men,
ory," as the street-talk had 1t, called
forth no little comment. In the Hophra
House cafe on the evening Of the
funeral day Stryker, the mining spec
ulator, was loud In his criticisms of
the High Line people.
''Yesl" he rallied; "a couple of 'em
will go on a junketIng trip East to
clear his memory after they've let
their 'wOps' at the dam bury him like
yellow dog And this Richlander
woman; they say she'd known him
ever since he and she were school
kids together; she went down and
took the train with her father Just
about the time they were planting the
poor devil"
Three weeks Of the matchless Au
gust weather had slipped by without
incident other than the indictment by
the grand jury of Crawford Stanton
Barney MGraw, and a number of 9th
ers on a charge of conspiracy; ant
Williams, unmolested since the nigh
of the grand battle in which Sheriff
Harding had figured as the master o.
the hunt, had completed the grea
ditch system and was installing tn,
machinery In the lately finished powe
house.
Over the hills from the northern
mountain boundary Of the Tlmanyon
wandering prospector had come wit
vague tale Of a new strike In Sunrls
Gulch, n placer district worked ou
and abandoned twenty years earlier 4
the height Of the Red Butte excite
ment. Questioned closely, the tale
bringer confessed that he had no proc
positive OF the strike; but In the hill
he had found a well-worn trail, latel
used. leading to the old camp, an
from one of the deserted cabins /
the gulch he had seen smoke arising
As to the fact of the trail the wal
dering tale-bearer was not at faul
On the most perfect OF the late-ll
August mornings a young woman, ella
In serviceable khaki, and keeping hC
cowboy headgear and buff top-boots /
good countenance by riding astride
n mans saddle, was pushing her moul
ND the trail toward Sunrise Gulc
From the top Of little rise the aba
doned camp came into view, its heal
Of worked-over gravel sprouting thic
ly with the Wild growth of TWEEN
years, and its crumbllng shacks, on
one Of which seemed to have surviv,
In habltable entirety, scattered amor
the frs of the gulch.
At the top Of the rise the horsewoI
nn drew rein and shaded her ey
with a gantleted hand. On a ben
beside the door on the single tenant
cabin man was sitting, and she so
him stand to answer her hand-waV
A few minutes later the man, a gau
young fellow with one arm in a sill
and the pallor of a long confineme
whitening his face and hands, was II
ing to help the horsewoman to d
mount in the cabin dooryard, but S
pushed him aside and swung out
the saddle unaided, laughing at h
out Of the slate-gray eyes and sayin
"How often have got to tell you II
you simply can't help a woman out
mans saddle?"
The man smiled at that.
ITS automatic" he returned.
Ehall never get over wanting to h,