FOR FREEDOM'S SAKE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXII, Issue 30, 3 February 1900, Page 4

FOR FREEDOM'S SAKE

By Arthur Pateeson, Author «r"AflMan offltta Word," " A Son of tho Plains" etc, etc. For Freedom's Sake " appeared in serial* form in tho Weekly Edition of Tnx Timbs, FebruaryJune, 1896.] CHAPTER Y.—Continued, THE SALOON. Elmore had spoken the simple truth when he said that Robert had committed a "grave and indictable offence " by" his declaration. Not that Robert regretted having done this. Aa he recalled How'ett's description of the meeting of free-soilers, the hot blood rushed to his head again, and he wished he had spoken in even stronger terms. His fingers tingled and itched, and had the Captain appeared in the flesh at this moment to renew the controversy it would have gone hard with him. But when Robert grew cool again, he saw clearly that all notion of peacefully settling down as a Kansas farmer was at the end. He would be henceforth a marked man. Elmore was an influential Government Official, Howlett an officer in the force kept here for the purpose of upholding the nothing from a feeling of gratitude for the service rendered the day before, if |he really felt grateful at all, but with | the latter no such scruple existed, and, Robert believed he was just the man to | take advantage of such a thing when opportunity offered. What was to be done ? By the time Robert asked himself this question he had walked his inner man into a state of weariness and ravenous appetite. He had tramped nearly twenty miles without coming across any town or village, and now found himself in a lonely part of the country surrounded by flat, dreary, prairie land, dotted at intervals by small farm-houses, but bare and very | uninviting to a tired and hungry man. The only thing to do was to return whence he came, and, perhaps, call at some farm on the way ; but as about this time Robert became aware that he was splashed from head to foot andjjwae wearing a very old and disreputable suit of a work-a-day clothes, he decided that he might be taken for a tramp, and, with his revolver, a dangerous one, and that the best course was to sup in Santone itself. So back he strode, and his thoughts, which had not been particularly cheerful before, became gloom}' beyond description now, and by the time Santone was reached, and the sun bit the horizon and sent. fieiy rays across the brown prairie, | Robert had definitely made up his mind I that his migration to Kansas had been a gross and ridiculous failure, and the sooner he returned to the East the better. ; The main thing, however, for the moment, was to get something to eat. i An instinctive reluctance to return to' Shappett's until bedtime caused him to look keenly about for other refresh- j ment. He soon spied one, in the shape of a low, wooden shanty, coloured green and white, and rendered conspicuous by three large windows of plate glass, j Over the doorway hung a black board i with " Piggott's Hotel" painted in blue i letters. It was a saloon. Robert, turned in there and passing a liquor bar j where only two men were being served i with drink—for the hour was early— j seated himself at one of several small tables scattered about the place, choos- ■ ing one graced with a pepper pot, and j which might, therefore, be said to offer I a kind of invitation to a supperless man.

| j For some minutes no one seemed to r , notice his presence—an interval of . time which Robert spent in congratulating himself that he had not taken up his abode here to stay. Everything was sticky and unpleasant to tlie touch, and had the appearance of not having •! been washed for a month. The chair ' | he sat in, the table, the gaudy, gilt- ' edged, flyblown mirror behind the bar, the walls, the ceiling, the floor—all were greasy and unclean. Had Robert been less hungry, and more experienced ! in the West, he would have noticed t more than this. He would have seen, , for instance, that at his entrance the man behind the bar and one of his customers exchanged a glance of intelligence and surprise, and lowering their voices to a whisper held a lengthy confabulation. Also, he would have ' taken in the significant appearance of the room in which he sat. For, though, beyond the bar, the room lengthened out into a space filled up with small tables, none of these had anything to indicate that meals were served upon ' them, while several had boxes upon them which to a knowing eye meant cards. But Robert noticed none of | these things, and had no more idea that he had entered the lowest gambling! ! den in Santone than a mouse, who has j never seen the world, imagines, when] he first smells toasted cheese, that he' 1 has thrust his nose in a trap. 1 Robert was in that sfatp of hunger and weariness when 0110 pifg waiting for the much needed refreshment, in a 'ptate half dreamy, half impatient, cons of little but the vacum within. I He heard fchg dopr close sharply as the man with whore t|i(j bar-keeper had '/been whinnering went out, lies the latter sipproach iiini with a hasty step find heard him make an awkward apology foy the delay. But these things conveyed nothing to his mind, and when the man said that, through the Strain upon their resources of the election the day before, there was only I aeon and beans in the hoitse, Robert replied that he would have that or anything, so loi:<{ an it came quickly. The bar-keeper huw.'fld away, and in a very short time brought apa ajippov better, cooked and ssrved than the niildmvesj appearance of the place would have warrantee!. Robert enjoyed hissnpper, and ate it leisurely, pondering upon plans for the future. He would return home, revisit Boston, and talk over matters with old friends there. Life and freedom were too sweet, after all, to be recklessly endangered and, perhaps, lost for the sake of a set of men who could talk but not act; who pre-J ferred submission to cowardly bluatcri rig - bravos to a struggle for freedom, Xtjj was not an heroic resolution he knew, j! but it possessed the virtue of common j sense. Vet, while Robert said this t • himself with emphasis, his heart still iquivered with the reflection of a face, tormentingly beautiful and sweet, X|d

heard Ruth's eager questions and saw as one sees some vivid figure in a dream, her face with its drawn lips and horrorstruck eyes as he foretold the abolition of slavery. It was growing dark. Robert was roused from his reverie by the flare of a lighted lamp placed by the bar-keeper in a bracket just above his head, It was time, he considered, to pay his bill and depart, and he rose from the table and drew out his pmwe. The place was lighted up, and in front of the bar were collected a group of men. At Robert's approach, as if at a preconcerted signal, these men faced him and, with a swift movement of their hands, 'covered" him by a dozen revolvers. " Caught, by thunder!' cried a voice. " Fairly coralled ye are as ever we r a skunk in a trap. Robert Holdenough, Abolitionist, hold up your hands." (To be cmtinued.)