Year: 1877

your horse is yet in sight; and my hus-
band is also liable to come at any mo-
ment."


"Your husband might perhaps shell
ter me. He"


"Him she emphasized it in de-
spairing tones. "He is Bill VOLTS
brother. l suppose you have managed
to affront some of them. And they give
no quarter.


Hooked around in despair. To go
out was to meet this Dick; to stay in
meant discovery, probably death. The
coffin was no longer available, for Dick
was coming for it.


cit is death for You, any way" she
moaned. "I hear the rattle of Dicks
axle-wheels already"


"Stay, there's the rain barrel out
side," said /, in desperation. "They've
tried that once, they may not look in it
again.


And before you would be able to
speak sentence, the water was dashed
out of the cask, stealing down into the
arid soil, and L was in the barrel, and
the woman dropping tub half filled
with water in at the top as cover.


She had barely time to re-enter the
house, the door of which fortunately
opened on the side away from the moon,
when rattling vehicle drew up at the
door, and / heard voice raving and
swearing at the woman for something
done, or undone; and then from the
bunghole, the plug having been dis
lodged in the upsetting of the cask,
saw the furious return of the three other
renegades. Hearing Dicks wheels they
must have turned back. AS to the steed
they supposed was on, they knew they
could catch that up at any time, what
ever the delay.


There ensued a good deal of loud talking,
explanations, and oaths. A jorum of hot
nectar was prepared, and theyall went in
to partake of it. Dick refused to join in
the hunt after me, on account of having
to take the coffin to its destination.


"Any way, we are bound on the same
track" cried Wolf, $50 you may have
the pleasure of seeing us wing the tur-
key. Five or six thousand dollars. It's
prize we don't get chance Of every
day."


"Won't old Southland swear when he
finds the money don't reach him, and he
doesn't know why


A shouting laugh. Dicks voice was
heard as it died away.


"Is there water enough out there,
Jenny, to drink my horse.


'1u see" she returned, moving slowly
over the sill. And then, leaping to the
cask, she lifted ont the tub and tipped
my barrel over little SO that / could
spring ont.


Hide where best you can" she whis-
pered.


The best place, the only place seemed
to be the dark corner between the cabin
wall and the barrel. Dick came out, and
led his horse up to the tub to drink.
Then, turning the wagon endways, he
went indoors, brought out the coffin with
the help of one of the others, and slid it
into the vehicle. Bill Wolf came out
next.


"Ive made another jug of nectar, "
ing words they all went back to the
cabin. / believe the woman did it to
give me time.


At that moment a wild and desperate
plan entered my brain; but, feeling for
my knife, / found that it was missing,
along with the belt to which it was at
tached. In the sudden jostle which the
steed had given me, the girdle had been
snapped and lost without my knowledge.
The horses of the three renegades-my
own, which had been retained by the
hostler at the inn, among them-were
hitched on the farther side of the door,
where the moonlight, striking by the end
of the cabin, rested fully upon them. 1t
was suicide to attempt seizing one of
them-my own, as had hoped so do
and riding off; so 1 embraced the only
alternative. Creeping into the wagon, /
lifted the coffin-id, and again lay down
in the long, narrow prison.


There was no choice. The flood of
moonlight had swept so far toward my
hiding-place that only part of my body
was concealed by the barrel, and knew
that discovery was inevitable, for the
mans horse stood in such position that,
in order to recover the reins, he must
have trodden upon me; and there was no
earthly thing, as far as the eye could
reach over the plain, behind which a man
could hide. All, but what if he should
Ic-thuIust hls lIclBub! Ouu you bilHh
how my heart beat away at the thought?
You wonder what my plan could be? ]
had none; other than the hope of having
only one man to deal with, if Dick parted
with the rest and went alone. He had
said he would go with them as far as the
Forks" after which, as L compre-
hended, his way would lie one road and
theirs another.


The three others mounted, and all were
about to start, when the woman ran out
with some sort of blanket, and muttered
something about covering the coffin.
Dick yelled out to her to mind her own
business and let the thing alone.


But she succeeded in accomplishing
her purpose. Disposing the blan-
ket across the coffin, as he was
beginning to drive away, she con-
trived to lift its lid and drop inside a
bowie-knife. You may be sure / seized
it heartily, and gave her blessing, too,
poor thing; and the first use / made OF
IL was to lodge the lid up just a fraction.
So that my breathing was easy, though
my position was cramped.


"We'n beat up the game speedily
now" said the horsemen one to another,
the quantity of whisky they had imbibed,