The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1924-01-10

man. at the best, but that little ne so
clothed with artistry that the like of
II had never been heard In the Flat
woods. Each man writes his own cpl
taph; Simon Colin had written his.
That was the basis of his remarks. He
neither ~eulogized nor blanchard In
that he showed the sense of a wiser
man
And now I'll jlst trouble y'u fr that
parlor-door key"
Hopkins scowled; whipped a black
look at the steady muzzle of the six
gum; dragged the key out of his
pocket and passed it over.
mo, / amt accusin' you of the muir
der" the woodsman went On. as cool
and collected as if there had been no
interruption. at the same time drop
ping the key into his pocket. I'm
dom y'u the honor t. think y'u hain't
quite fell that low--bein' y'u didn't
want is death, nohow. No. y'u wanted
i'm t. live, SOS you could slip out all
the good bills y'u dast every night and
leave counterf'it bills in their place.
You'd jist got through changin'
the money that night when e rushed
ont on y'u. He tried t. shOot-both
bar'ls-but you fixed the caps SOS they
wouldn't go off. Then foller'd the
struggle, and no doubt you was bad
fustered when e fell back acrosst the
chair, dead Of heart disease. Then
y'u unlocked the door t. head off sus-
picion, but y'u must a. ben fustered
r y'u wouldn't "a left blood on the
key
Hopkins was bowed forward, star
ing hard through his glasses. The
woodsman glanced at him.
Theirs jist one pint l amt quite
clear on-did e know it was your
The question caught the other off
guard.
MY God, yes! Oh, his dead face
there in the coffin-in the black night
it's before me-"
He s%huddered gripped his hands till
the knuckles turned white; stiffened
after a moment and pulled himself to-
gether.
"Mr. Caleb Hopkins peculiar
twist had slid into his voice that
brought a quick look from the man
addressed-'T low y'u didn't aim t
kill Pap Simon, but the Flatwoods
amt big enough any more t. hold you
and me both. The Milford stage
from down the river is leavin' the post
office FIR the city in a few minutes.
You're goin' t. be a passenger-and
y'u amt comm back"
Hopkins WINGED; involuntarily
dropped his hand to the butt of his
six-gun, before remembering it was
useless snapped out a muttered curse
and stood glazing about him.
A grin, hare and dangerous, crawled
out of the woodsman's eyes and twist
ed his face.
81 low Wen be startin'-now," he
Hopkins swore again-an artistic
run of oaths that the Flatwoods
call split hic'ry"-stamped across the
floor; picked up his two satchels and
brought them back to the desk.
Empty EN-" the hard voice com
handed.
Did if 1 WILL" the other snarled,
lis eyes like live Goals in his face. {
"Y'u will, r y'urn face Jerry Brown
and amt carin' a dern which"
The other glared around appeared
0 mediate some desperate move;
eemed to realize his helplessness
Inally slammed the satchels on the .
.esk with a snarl and snatched out
heir contents. t
One of them contained some cloth a
1g and a few personal belongings;
he other a number of thick bundles @
f money-real money; the face of Il
left no doubt of that very i'm d
ortant fact. tt
The woodsman's eyes widened a h
life. CT
Lord, parson, y'u cut some swath Ii
FIR a preacher! How much did yu'
ave when y'u struck the FIatwoods- N
,al mcnoyT 81
give Kindred" cl
I'm takln y'ur word FIR that. Peel B
1 LA&L hActA III put tAC Us LIZ 81
Hopkins picked up one Of the bun- bl
es; counted off bills-all tens and til
7enties--to the amount of five hun
dollars; and dumped the rest Ms
it'll the other bundles back in the W
tchel. &c
The long arm CT tie woodsman I'M w
pectedly stabbed across the desk hi
ID snatched the satchel. Hopkins co
to spring at him faced the ga
Izzle Of the steady six-gun fiinched fir
ok. on
With exasperating deliberation the We
'odsman stored away the bundles of
Is in the %capacious pockets of his or
nting blouse; snapped the satchel tn
ut, dropped it to the floor and slid I'M
the other with his foot. a
You'll go ahead O. me downstairs gI'
directed, crisp and cold. MAKE sh
ateyer excuse y'u please t Mis- Ma IN
- O n x-hndv o1-n ~. ,r,w ov+o NToslI INT