The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1938-04-28
M Men Of the
by Captain
G. Elliott NIGHTINGALE
Copyright, WNU
Il VERY DELICATE
SITUATION

The Northern Lights have seen queer sights
And q queer one they sure did see
When one fine might've men-not SO bright
Swiped two tons Of coal, from MacPhee.
IN SPITE of the fact that there
1 were outcroppings Of coal here
and there, and that settlers could
cart the not-so-bituminous stuff
away for two dollars a ton, some
one went to the trouble to steal two
tons of the wretched stuff from a
settlers back yard one night, and
the incident gave rise to some UNI
usually delicate situations. The los
er, Woodworking and worthy ma
tive Canadian, kept the news OF his
loss to himself for several days,
meanwhile trying to do bit of am
ateur detective work on his own.
Ten days passed, without results, so
one morning he saddled up and Wis
tied the nearest post of the Royal
Mounted.
Both the Mounted and the settler
realized, of course, that the amount
involved was rather small. Never
theleSS, the laws concerning prop
erty rights must be upheld, and an
experienced member of the Royal
Mounted was assigned to look into
the matter. Starting in on a "cold
trail" has many disadvantages, and
the Mounted failed to turn up the
slightest clue, for it is impossible
to identify stolen coal when all the
coal in the district came from the
same vein. Furthermore, cold
weather had set in and, somewhere
that coal was being burned. At any
rate, it began to appear that the
case of the stolen coal was to join
the rather small index of unsolved
cases. It was not forgotten, though,
by the three men of the Royal
Mounted stationed in that district.
They stored the details away in the
index of their minds confident that
some day, somewhere, the first clue
would come to light. Nor was their
confidence misplaced.
Then one morning chap known as
the Smiling Constable" was trot-
ting his horse along the patrol when
to his right, waving and reckoning
him to come over. In few min
utes the settler and the Smiling
Constable" were deep in whispered
conversation behind the small sta
| BILE.
"My daughters know the whole
story about who stole the coal
from MacPhee's place." said the
settler, ''but unless you promise to
protect their modesty and woman
hood, we refuse to help YOU"
Protect them!" exclaimed the
Man of the Mounted, ''Why of
course will. Witnesses, eh? That's
fine. Now, just where were they
when they saw the robbery"
That's just the point. To shout
that information in an open court
room would be extremely en-
barrassing to them. Ones fourteen,
the others sixteen and to go
into details would :"
why extremely embarrassing
was it so awful p"
"No, perfectly natural. Fact is
they were taking care of a little
matter that isn't mentioned in po-
lite society,"" And so it developed
that unseen, yet seeing, these two
young ladies had watched two men,
whom they knew to be newcomers
in the district, very carefully bag
ging and sacking the coal and plac-
ing the lunpy bags in a grain-box
wagon. The girls not only identi-
fed the robbers, but also described
the grain bags, the horses, the har-
ness, the grain-box, and so on, and
they clinched their story by assert
ing that they saw everything quite
plainly because at the time the
northern lights had broken out bril-
liant and strong and there were
moments when they could, they de-
clared, have read newspaper quite
comfortably at two o'clock that
morning. Within "a hours the Gull
prits were arrested and two days
later the case came up for trial.
Meanwhile the prisoners had hired
a lawyer who had for some time
been under observation by the
Mounted because of his sharp and
unethical practices.
The Royal Mounted established
their charges. The shyster then
started shouting for witnesses, but
the Royal Mounted objected. The
judge demanded explanations. The
Man of the Mounted prosecuting the
case asked the judge to step down
from the bench for a moment. His
honor complied, and the mounted
policeman was soon whispering
closely into the judges ear. The
judge resumed his seat, at which
the shyster began display of tam
trums. Finally, the lawyer ran out
of breath and words, and the Judge
asked if he were finished.
eyes am :. but what
does your so-called British law
amount to when witnesses are for
hidden to take the stand?" he shout
ed.
"Why, my dear sir" smiled his
honor, ''it amounts to 18 months
for your clients, Imprisonment at
hard labor, and if you don't behave
yourself, you'll do part of it with
them. Next case" Later the shy
ster learned why the girls had been
kept off the stand, and he threat
ened to reopen the case. The
Mounted promised to run him out of
the country if he ever tried to re-
open that particular case.
Eel Never Loses Way