The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1919-07-29

him, once in a TT Of depression !
had confided In him. we were out on
night herd together. The thick breath
of the hot evening weighed about US.
The cattle had been restless. cracking
sHSfi,,n horns W. to ssd beaa ed0T sSem down s%n
at last In the level prairiOs and there
was that tremendous silence OF the
night which rests like an incubus on
the plains,
A storm was coming, We feared a
stampede, Chicken and I sat on a little
mesa singing now and then to quiet
the cattle. We began TO hear the roll
ing boom OF thunder, Lightning STRUCK
through the darkness, darting Its I'm
canny flash about the horns of the
steers.
felt lonesome and homesick and fun
OF premonitions. Often since the death
of Jim Stanton ! had thought OF going
back, | was tired OF the isolation OF
the ranges. ! wondered about my father
Know II / died, This night / told
Chicken to write to my fathers people
In Charleston, Va, II | should be killed,
Pete stood there grinning at me:
Never In my life have | felt so hot
with shame and humiliation. ! wanted
to escape. | came out from my corner
to beg Pete to free me, MY father,
straight, kind, smiling, stood looking at
he, his hand stretched through the oars
1 Of the c~alaboose,
CHAPTER ".
There was such a queer, gentle o
In my fathers face, as though he yefe
the culprit and not ], 1t iahbed me TO
the quick. He never said a word OF
censure 10 me-not then nor In all the
years that followed,
But he went quietly to work to WIN
my release. Three days later | left La
Cruces with him, | vas not even
brought to trial, My father had taken
a new start, studied law, won success,
gathered the family about him, and set
tied in Charleston, Va The boys ne
Frank and | finished the study of Law
four years later, when | was just pas
eighteen.
There must have been something UNI
stable and reckless in our natures, toi
our lives never ran along the level. We
seemed TO court adversely, Our Tor"
tunes went like a wave through a con-
tinual succession OF swells and hollows
I'VE struck the hollows when | fin
ished college. Tit family packed It's
baggage and moved TO Coldwater, kas
The Middle West was wild, new coun'
try then. We moved about in Kansas
took up land, built the town OF Boston
sold town lots, cleared SIS, 900 and los
every cent Of II In the drought OF 1889
Crumh- clean. we went into Oklahoma
The settlers were all bankruptS, Tht
, government issued food to them. Franz
aud | were both athletes. We support
eHthe family with the money we earne'
at foot racing,
Just about this time one of the pc
fiodtc swells in our fortunes swept m,
father into Woodward county, where h
was appointed Judge by Gov. Renfro
John and Ed opened Law offices in tn
same town | was elected county attor
ney Of lei Reno, Frank was deputy clerl
in Denver.
II was the crest OF our prosperity
, Judge Jennings was the man OF weigh
, In the community. He was re.clecte'
almost unanimously. John and Ed wer'
the attorneys In every big case tina
[ came up In the courts. My father ha'
/ built a beautiful home and had a com
Portable bank account We were goinI
4 forward with a swift, sure current whe'
I tho GarSt affair, like the uncharte
rock, blocked our course.
Many vents In my iife-the pistc
shot In the Cincinnati theater, the de
: sertion in the p~rairies, the lawlessnes
e Of the -ranges-seemed to have bee
' shaping the channel for the rapids tina
r we're to hurl Frank and me into III