The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1936-01-30

| now 10 Do IOiu.
1t fell to Saladine to repeat to Will
Ferrin and Marin Pierce and Jenny
what Zeke told them now. When half
an hour later they returned to the
house divided, Will and Jenny came
to the door; but the sheriff stayed with
Zeke and that other in the car.
"Jim, you go tell them what hap
pened" he said.
So Saladine alighted and came into
the warm kitchen and while they lis
tened without question, he told the
| tale.
"You were right, Marin Pierce" he
said. 1T was Bart. His belt was bone
dry!" Will stirred, but Saladine added
quickly, restraining the other man:
"But Bart's dead already. WILL Zeke
| killed him."
| And he related the manner of that
killing: then harked back. .Zeke was
upset when Hubby took me down to
the brook" he explained. "As soon as
Will left him, he tried to find her at
the ledge; but she was gone. She must
have tried to follow me-"
He hesitated, struck by the percep.
ton that his own coming here today
had precipitated all that ensued. 'Zeke
didn't see her." he explained. "But he
traipsed down brook, and caught up
with me. and he thought she was
bound TO meet me somewhere; so he
followed me till l got over here. He
was hiding outside when Bart come
through the barn. carrying her.
"Zeke was too far away to stop
Bart; but he knew it was Huldy by
her dress, and he was wild; and he
crawled into the other side of the
house. to try to hear what had hap
pened to her."
SIT was him heard in there?" Jenny
whispered.
Saladine nodded. "And it was him
in the shed, after that, Marin Pierce"
he said. He looked at Jenny. "Zeke
heard Hubby tell you that Will killed
her." he explained, land he ser our
to find Will, ready to do for Eiml But
on the way home, he see BaEt's tracks
in the woods, and back-tracked Bart
to where he picked Hubby up after
she fell.
at had rained, but the ground was
all soft before rhe rain, and Zeke was
tracker enough to make out what had
happened. Bart didn't come up from
the brook to where she fell. There'd
have been tracks to show, If he had,
but there want But his tracks was
4 oil 1oi Cryho hn,
the ledge and across to where Hubby
was laying"
Marin Pierce interjected sharply {:
There was tracks coming up from
the brook when / went over there,
while you and Bart was herer'
| Saladine considered, admiring the
old woman's thoroughness, yet per-
ceiving an explanation of this matter,
too.
And he explained: "Zeke went up
to the ledge, and found enough to let
him make out that Bart and Hubby
had had some kind of a scuffle there !;
so he knowed Hubby had lied about
Will, and he raced over to Bart's
house, meaning to kill him; but Bart
want there; and Zeke come back
here and missed Bart again; and he
spent the rest of the day like a dog
between rat holes, trying to find Bart
and to get at him in some way so Bart
couldn't use his gun"
He concluded: "And he finally way
laid him over at the barnl That's
ALL"
Jenny chung fast to Wills arm; and
| Marin Pierce exclaimed: swell, good
riddance" There was never any senti-
mentality in that stout old woman
Hubby want worth it; but I'm right
| glad to know that Bart got his come
| uppance! 1t was high time"
But Will said: pore Zeke. He
won't live long, in Jail"
pore fiddlesticks!' Marin Pierce
protested. 81 sh'd say you didn't have
any call to pity himw
| Il Dunno" Will confessed. II al
ways was kind of sorry for Zeke. And
it want his fault. He tried to hold
out against her. But Hubby, 1 guess
she could outnumber most any man."
| Saladine felt himself an outsider
here. THE sheriff's in a hurry" he
remembered. Were taking Zeke-
and Bart toto town; so I'll be
moving on" And turned toward the
door. 'Pll come see you folks again,
sometime" he promised.
$50 do" Marin Pierce assented, and
Will seconded the invitation.
So Saladine babe them all good-by,
and went out into the night where the
sheriff and Zeke were waiting in the
car, and began the long, wearfsome
drive to town.
| He forgot his rod and fish basket !;
but 1t would be long before he came to
claim them. Zeke Dace, as Will had
foreseen, did not live to face trial He
died in late August, In the Jail on the
hill above East Harbor.
"He WANT SICK" the sheriff told
Saladine, stopping at Jim's farm on
the Ridge above Fraternity one day.
"He was always kind of thin and
shaky, but no worse than always. He
| just died, that's allr'
They talked together of Zeke for a
little; and then Jim asked word of the
other folk in Hostile valley.
II was out there last week." the
sheriff explained. ITO tell 'em about
Zeke. Marin Pierce has made it up
with her brother. Wins living with
her now, and fixing up his side of the
house to keep the weather out. He
swears he's never going to touch an.
other drop of rum as long as he lives,
prob'ly."
| Saladine asked for viii and Jenny.
They're fine" the sheriff assured
him. They're aiming to get married,
here In a week or sol"