Baxter Springs news., 1919-02-21

.f-sA-N-NA
nd the dummy fell.
Within close range Belle secretet
h self. This joke to her thrilled hel
heart for she saw beyond 1t all the
arrest of Osborn which furnished hel
tn very ground upon which she knew
sh could defeat Ellen.
Osborn sat by his table reading the
report that he had been successful in
winning the first prize ut the inter
state corn show. He was elated. A
pail now swept his facial expressioni
he looked up seemingly out to that
corn crib; something was humping
and heaving in his chest; he walked
and then sat down to read the report
again. Imagine this tense moment
B-A-N-Gi
The report dropped from osborn's
hand and, half afraid Of the truth
he looked knowingly toward the corn
crib, raised from his chair, nervously
fumbled and placed his hat on his
head and went out of the house.
Twenty rods away lay the dummy
clothed in the Judges fine twill suit.
From ambush Belle saw Osborn
coming with measured tread and for
the life of her she could not repel her
merriment lest she place her hand
over her mouth, and even after that
was done, she saw Osborn stop few
feet away and look at the dummy and
reasoned that the thief was only
wounded, when, in fact, the sounds
Osborn heard emanipated from the
half-hushed "sniggers" and "giggles"
of Belle McClain.
"Poor thief" unused Osborn, as he
stood a few feet away from the dunn
my in the pale moonlight, and with a
remorseful gasp he turned toward the
house.
With Osborn out of the way, Bellies
intention was to take the dummy back
to the law office, replace the Judges
suit in the closet and cause the arrest
Of Osborn before he discovered the
disappearance of the "thief," but
something happened-the unexpected
As Belle arose from her ambush the
ragged form of a human being, not
twenty feet away, came stealthily to-
ward the corn crib with sack in hand.
1t was Zeke Sutton. All of Bellies
happy moments at the expense Of Os-
born now left her; the atmosphere
changed and became stiffling; she felt
the warm blood of a moment ago
running to freezing point; and to
still add to her frightful dilemma,
Zeke had cut off her avenue of es-
cape. There was but one thing-only
one-for her to do, and deftly enough
she dropped into ambush.
Zeke had neared the corn crib door
when he discovered what appeared to
be dead man. There was something
about the looks and appearance Of
that corpse, though, that excited
ZelSe's curiosity and he stood gazing
at it. He saw its irregular shape and
came to a quick conclusion that it was
nothing more than a "scare-crow'
that Osborn had used out in the gar
den, although he could not account fol
the swell suit on the "scare-crow."
Zeke was running low on suits as well
as corn and this was a temptation he
could not forego. After examining
the suit and finding it to be much bet
ter than his own, he chuckled to him
self and said: "By gum, I'll jist
change suits with this yer feller," and
began to take off his clothes.
Horror stricken Belle escaped from
ambush and when she reached the lit
tie town it was in great excitement
Osborn had telephoned the Judge that
he had killed the thief and would give
himself up. The message read: 81
have killed a thief. Send the sheriff
l give myself up"
But Zeke Sutton was far from dead
Dressed up now in one Of the Judges
twill grey suits, he filled his sack with
Yellow Dent corn from 0sborn's crib
and finding a finely favored long Ha'
vana cigar in the Judges suit, he
lighted it, threw the sack onto his
shoulder and strutted away.
When Belle appeared at the Office
Sheriff Woods was just leaving with
a warrant for the arrest of Osborn
Belle knew that unless she took the
sheriff into her confidence her JOKE
would be exposed when he went to gel
the thief and her strong card against
Ellen would be obliterated. Being tht
County Attorney it was quite natura
for her to discuss the murder case Sc
cretly with the sheriff, and, speaking
to him, the two repaired into q pri