Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1924-10-17
CHAPTER VII
Just a Girl, After All


evilly under his pale brOWs, rode that
night between Hampton and Judith
down to the ranch-hOuse. He main
tanned a stubborn silence after the
first outburst of rage.
Burkitt and Lee, despite Judith's OBJ
jections because Of Lees wounded leg,
remained at the cabin with Bill Crow
dy. Crowdy had lost a deal of blood
and, though he complained Of little
pain, was clearly in sore need of medi-
cal attention. Crowdy, like Shorty,
refused to talk.
"Aw, HI" he grunted as Lee de-
manded what influence had brought
him with Shorty and Quinnion into this
mad project, "let me alone, can't
you"
The events of the rest Of the night
and of the morrow may be briefly told:
Shorty's modest request for a glass of
whisky was granted him. Then, his
hands still bound securely by Carson,
he was put in the small grain-hOuse,
a windowless, ten-by-ten house of logs.
All S(lIllll dDIC jan IllloJ WIN 10 hSdNJ
paddock snapped into a deeply-imbed-
ded staple and the great hasp in place.
The key safely in Judith's possession,
Shorty was left to his own thoughts
while Judith and Hampton went to
the house
In answer to Judith's call, Doe
Tripp came without delay, left brief,
discOncerting word that without the
shadow of a doubt the hogs were
stricken with cholera, and went on
with his little bag to see what his skill
could do for Bill CrOWdy.
Ought to give him sulphur fumes"
grunted Tripp. But his hands were
very gentle with the wounded man, for
all that.
Pollock Hampton had no thought of
sleep that night didn't so much as go
to bed. He lay on a couch in the liv-
ing room and Marcia LangWOrthy, tre-
mendously moved at the recital Ju-
dith gave Of Hampton's heroism t1ut-
tered about him, playing nurse to her
hearts delight Mrs. Langworthy
complacently looked into the future
and to the maturity of her own plans
Before daylight Carson, with half a
dozen men, had breakfasted, saddled
and was ready to ride to the Upper
End to begin the search for QuinniOn
But before he rode, Carson made the
discovery that during the night the
staple and hasp on the grain-hOuse
door had been Wrenched away and
that Shorty was gone. Carsons face
was a dull brick red Not yet had he
brought himself to accept the full sig
nlficance of events. A hOld-up, such
as Charlie Miller had experienced, is
one thing; a continued series of Incl
dents like these happening upon the
confines of the Blue Lake ranch, was
quite another Only too plainly he
realized that Shorty had had an ac-
complice at the ranch headquarters
who had come to his assistance.
Carson blamed himself for the es
cape. "Quinnion might have let him
loose" he mused as he went slowly to
the house to tell Judith what had hap
pened. "An' then he mightn't. If he
didn't, then who the devil did?"
Judith received the news sleepily
and much more quietly than Carson
had expected.
"Well have to keep our eyes open
after this, Carson" was her criticism.
"We've got to keep an eye on our own
men. Some one of our crowd, taking
my pay, is double-crossing us. Now,
get your men on the jump and we
won't bother about the milk-spilling
If we are in luck Wen get Shorty yet
And Quinnion, Carson! Don't forget
Quinnion. And we've still got Bill
Crowdy; Wen get everything out of
him that he knows"
During the day Emmett Sawyer, the
Rocky Bend sheriff, came, and with
him Doctor Brannan. Sawyer assured
Judith that he would be followed
shortly by posse led by deputy and
that they would hunt through the
mountains until they got the outlaws
To all questions put him, Bill Crow
dy answered with stubborn denial of
knowledge or not at all. He had been
alone he didn't know any man named
QuinniOn, he didn't know anything
about Shorty. And he hadn't robbed
Miller. That canvas bag, then, with
the thousand dollars in it? He had
found it; picked 1t up in a gully.
Crowdy, at Doctor Brannan's orders,
was taken to Rocky Bend, where Saw
yer promised him a speedy trial, con-
viction and heavy sentence unless he
changed his mind and turned states
evidence. And-to be done with Bill
Crowdy for good and all-he never
came to stand trial. mad attempt at
escape a week later, another bullet
hole given him in his struggle with his
jailer, and with lips still stubbornly
locked, he died without Switching on
pal"
Under fire in the dark cabin with
life grown suddenly tense for them,
Bud Lee and Judith Sanford had
touchad hands 1Inperinplv No ona