The Pulaskian., 1921-01-27

coarse. "No tenderfoot ain't goin' ter make that trail at night. Morn like ly he's aimin' ter com through the other way"
 "What'll we do, then-ride on?"
 "After bit; it's early yet, an may be it'll do no harm to lie quiet awhile. But we kin light up, an' be com fortable"
 He struck match, following the flame in his hands, revealing the bearded face of a man of fifty, shad- owed beneath a soft hat brim. Be yond him appeared the obscure out line of the other, mere smudge. moment the two puffed away content edly, Shelby not venturing to move muscle
 Say, Hanley, I've al1ers played my hand the best I knew how, but I do like ter know what the game is I'm playin' at. What do yer know, any, how?"
 The other chuckled in his beard. rustling his feet in the leaves.
 Easier ter ask about than explain. Hank" he answered slowly, specially as there is things don't just cotton to myself. Mostly I pulled the facts out of that Kid Macklin when he was drunk, cause he wanted me to help him. But it seems he's only hired fer the job it's that guy we're waitin' for who has got the real dope, and like wise the long-green."
 "Churchill's his name, ain't it?"
 That's the duffer; some big fel1er down East; Virginia, as I understand Judge Cornelius Churchill; the whole story goes h-l of a long ways back
 He leaned his head against the tree trunk behind him, pufing away st the cigarette between his bearded lips, the dull glow barely touching his face. The younger man leaned for ward waiting.
 Well" he said impatientlg, that us? Whats the idea of stealth the girl7 An just whar do you an me come in?''
 ''Well, as I figure it. we've got to make our own medicine You saw that outfit go along afore dark-Macklin an the four reds?"
 Sure; they had a woman with 'emY"
 'eThat's the ticket, an they was bound for Wolves hole. I thought maybe they'd camp down here, but they didn't-just kept moyin'. Well, that's one thing you an laid out here for, to get a line on Macklin. The other thing is that this yere Cornelius Churchill is about due also, an is most likely to blow in along this same trail. It is my notion to have a word privatelilze with that gent before Joe gets to him-see2"
 Cant say that I do, Hanley, exact ly Whats it all about-the girl?"
 Mostly, I reckon, an a h-l of slice of money down East. This Is how the Kid blew it to me. It seems an army officer named Carlyn bout the time the Civil war closed, ran away with a Rose Churchill down in Virginia, and married her. All he cared for was the girl, an he never even knew she was rich, only that her family objected to him, an that they'd have to skip out. I reckon, maybe, she didn't know 1t herself at the time nor the rest O the Churchill family, for they didn't make no great effort to find her for some while. Then, when they opened a will, they discov- cred that most all the Churchill for tune had been left to this Rose, and they naturally becom' mighty inter, ested. Cornelius. as I understand, was the brother of Roses father, an the property was put in his hands as trustee on behalf of the girl. Maybe he was straight enough guy general ly speaking, but he had expected to get most of this dough after the girl skipped out, an was consequently al- mighty hot Naturally he wanted to keep the stuff, an he didn't make no great effort to locate the heiress. By the time he did lesrn who she had married, Rose died leaving a daugh- ter. By the terms vf the will if she died childless the entire estate revert ed to Cornelius and he wasn't the sort O guy to loso that Find O bet
 An this soldier never suspected nothing?"
 Mot thing. He was a colonel by this time, out at some frontier post and left his baby to the care of some relatives in the East. There wasn't no fuss made, an so Churchill serter let affairs slide along He had the use of the money, an begun to think there never would be no trouble. Of course he Kept line on the husband, l but lost trace of the kid entirely" Yer mean the colonel never even ! know'd he'd married rich girlp' "So it seems I reckon she didn't even know it. his wife. But after l awhile some inkling of the truth must l have reached him. for he went East.