Judsonia weekly advance. (Judsonia, Ark.) 1???-1922, 1921-03-31
the river. and their words wers

lips as he wound up his reel and stole
the river, but a sudden light cleaned
in his eyes and his muscles hardeTsed
with excited tension. He knew tina
shanty TO which Gardiner referred. az
they had once been there together.
and he resolved that if there were 60
ing to be any "dOings" in that locall-
ty tonight he would furnish share of
the excitement. Unfortunately. the
ford was on a cross-road little ased
and it was two miles back to lis,
ranch. BY the time Travers reached
the ranch buildings, caught and sad
died his horse, made a fruitlesS search
Tor his revolver substituted a rifle
which lay at hand. and at length
found himself upon the trail. darkness
was setting in and Gardiner ana Riles
had many miles start of him.
When the two plotters stopped to let
their horses drink at the ford Gardiner
suddenly broke off from their CONVEX
sation to make few remarks about
Travers and Harris. Rifles had lis
eNhNh Citly uIlli Ills eye Caught
sight of Travers. half concealed
among the cotton-woods that fringed
the stream He clutched Gardeners
arm.
"S-s-sh," he cautioned. "Jim's just
behind the bank. I'm sure / saw him
an he heard you, too"
Good" said Gardiner. quite undis.
turbed. Now we can go on" They
refined up their horses and plunged into
the swiftlyrunning water. "You see,"
said Gardiner, as the horses took the
opposite bank with great strides. their
wet hoOfs slipping on the round boul-
ders that fringed the stream-"You
see, knew Jim was there all the time.
Those remarks were intended for his
benefit.
ITS all quite simple. Jim Will hurry
back to the ranch, saddle his horse.
and follow us. BY the way. I didn't
tell him l borrowed his revolver. That
may delay him some. But he should
arrive at the shack in time to be TAX
ing few stealthy observations just
about the moment the Harrises are
hunting for their money bag | hope
Allan doesn't use that shotgun on him.
A shotgun makes an awful hole In
man. Riles."
/" Riles experienced an uncanny feel
ing up his spine.
"Well," continued Gardiner. 81 prom
ised to lay the whole plan before you,
when we were safe on the road with
no possibility of any strange ears
cooked for what a man might happen
to say. It's all easy sailing now. The
big thing was to get them on the road
with the coin. That's what needed
you for, Rifles. And you didn't do too
bad. l had to prod you along bit but
you'll thank me for it when it's all
over
"Now this is how 1t will work out,
to a T. The two Harrises will get up
to the shanty about dark They'll pitch
camp there and begin to wonder when
We'll be along. Well, we won't be
along until it's good and dark, even if
we have to kill time on the road II
Travers catches up on us We'll just let
'iaAi iidhC olC VI PAL WAlCn VIII
be sort of embarrassing for Jim. But
he won't catch up. Well, when it's
good and dark-there'll be no moon till
after midnight-and they're both
sleepy with their long drive in the high
altitude, we will arrive near by. You
will go up to the door and take a look
on the quiet l will go up to the win
dow and do the same There's no
glass in the window. and there's no
door on, either, as | remember. Well
size up things inside, particularly the
location of the coin. Then you show
yourself. Tell 'em | have the owner of
the mine out there in the trees, but the
old fellow won't come in until he has
a talk with them. Tell 'em they better
not show the money until they chat
with him a few minutes. Likely they'll
fall for that, as they don't seem to
have the slightest suspicion. But II
they balk at leaving the money let
dark the rest will be easy. But I fig
ure they'll leave the money in the
shack-it's just for a few minutes, you
know-and they'll reason that it's safe
enough with no one but ourselves with.
in miles. Well, you lead them of
down through the bush. AS soon as
you do that I'll slip in through the
window. gather up the long green and
cache it somewhere in the scrub. You
won't be able to find me at first, but
when you do I'll say that the old fell
low wanted to go up to the shack him.
self to meet them, and | let him go.
Then We'll all go back to the shack.
and find both the money and the old
mantle mine owner, you know
missing. Then we'll start a hue and
cry and all hit into the bush. You and
/ will gather up the spoil and make
quiet getaway for the night. OF course
well have TO turn up in the morning
to avert suspicion. but we can tel them
we got on the robbers trail and fol
lowed 1t until we lost ourselves in the
bush. In the meantime the HAIRLESS
will be tearing around in great excite
ment. and they're almost sure to run