Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 261, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 November 1917 — A Mountain Maid [ARTICLE]

A Mountain Maid

By Margaret Daisy Jamieson

(Copyright, 1917, Weatern Newspaper Union.) “Money will solve the problem. Use it freely. The company must and will exterminate the Boyce-Grinnel raiders. Thus" the manager of the Brittln Iron Worlds to Adrian Burgoyne, who had been surprised at the strange mission indicated, but gratified at the confidence reposed in him and the signal discretion. “I shall do my best,” he said, modestly, “although it seems a hardship to legitimate business that a few lawless men can block the wheels of industry. Half the amount you are authorized to spend might bribe the gang to let us alone, but the policy and principle of the company is to submit to no blackmail extortions.” The word “extermination” had a tragic sound, but, according to the instructions of Adrian Burgoyne, Involved only the suppression of the lawless group to whom the manager had alluded through isolation or capture; The Brittln Iron Works had a magnesite mine at Tilson, a little town back in the wildest part of Tennessee. In the rugged mountains beyond it some ten outlaws represented’the remnant of two notorious moonshine and bandit gangs defied the community. They would ride furiously into the settlemehts, and shoot them up and terrorize and rob their inhabitants. Recently they had been after bigger game. Wherever there was a plant or business of any pretentious proportions they would first threaten trouble through anonymous letters. In most cases the smaller companies timidly submitted to paying regular tribute. The dealings of the band with the Brittln Iron Works were on a large scale. Their epistolary menaces were disregarded. Within a week two explosions occurred in the pits. Some timid workmen gave up their positions./ Burgoyne reacher Tilson and looked over the situation. He found it decidedly serious. The workmen were intimidated, and the timid police officers were reluctant to have anything to do with the hunting down of the outlaws. Burgoyne went back to Leesburg, the nearest city. Here he approached a private detective agency. Its proprietor was amenable to the liberal rewards offered. “Once we can get the gang rounded up into a court of law,” observed Rurgoyne, “there is evidence to land them in the penitentiary for the rest of their lives. I will pay one thousand dollars for the apprehension of each minor member of the band, and five thousand dollars for their leader, Budd Grinnell.” When Burgoyne got back to Tilson he went over the mines and inspired the workmen with confidence and courage by raising wages and organizing an armed group of special watchmen. In this he was signally aided by a man named Zed Baines, who had lived in the district for years, was fearless and independent, and whom the outlaws, after several encumbers with that sure shot, left distinctly alone. It was the second week of his sojourn at Tilson that Adrian started to see Baines at his home a little beyond the limits of the village. It was a warm day ha missed his way, sat down against a tree to rest, and the drowsy summer air led him into profound

slumber. “What Is this I” he cried vaguely, as he awoke at the consciousness of human contact. He stared in wondet. At his side knelt a veritable fairy of the forest, a young girl, bronzed, tawny haired, in rough frontier garb. She held his right hand In a firm clasp. To Its back her lips were glued. “Don’t stir till I tell you!” she ordered. Then she disclosed a steely blue mound on the back of his hand, and pointed to a writhing object in the grass a few feet away. __ “A rattlesnake!” breathed Adrian, a fhrtH onee he comprehended the situation. His grateful eyes fell upon the bent head of the Intrepid girl, who had probably discovered him just as the fehgs of the vemenous serpent had sunk into his hand, had dispatched the snake, and probably had saved his life. “Come, quick! you must run,” she urged. “Our house is less than half a mile away. Fight oft the drowsiness until we get some medicine down you.” A sight of his hand, now swollen to double its normal size, urged him on. When he reached a rude cabin, once within it he sank exhausted to a chair. The girl ran over to a jug on a shelf and filled a quart tin cup with the moonshine liquor it- contained. cup to Adrian’s lips. “What is it?” he remonstrated feebly. “It is whisky.” “I have never touched it.” “You will, this time,” answered his peremptory nurse—“it’s all that will save you!* 7 - y It did; save him. Adrian awoke, weak and nervoua but out of danger, to find his beautiful little friend at his side with a steaming bowl of broth. For several days he felt the effects of the snake bite. He spent most of his

leisure time at the old cabin. Lura Baines bad come into his life in a way that left a lasting impression. He was seated in the one large room of the house telling his wonder-eyed little friend of the marvels of the outside world she had never seen, when she sprang up with a warning cry. A shadow crossed the threshold, then it disclosed a great, brawny, fierce-vis-aged man. He swung out a slip knot piece of rawhide. It looped the head and then the body of the unprepared Adrian. With a great laugh Budd Grlnnel secured the strap about, thechair. “Hardly,” sneered Grlnnel, as Lura reached for her father’s rifle. The outlaw anticipated this, and flung the weapon through the window and dropped into a chair directly opposite Lura, the table between them. “What do you want?” she gasped, her brave nature for the moment thrown off its balance, but her mind working activity as seeking some way out of the dilemma. “What I’ve got,” sneered Grinnell. “That fellow yonder. He’ll never chase another gang down. I am going to end him, here and now, and then —I’m going to take you along with me.” “Without my consent, I suppose?” questioned Lura, calm enough now. - “Oh, I’ve got my horse. You are a mere featherweight.” “Unwillingly? So much for that! I will either kill you, or myself, the first chance I get.” “See here, girl,” said Grinnell, looking impressed, “I’m lonesome, I want you, I’m going to leave the district, and I’ve got some money. I know your tune _that young fellow Is your spark. Good I Give him up, come with me willingly, and I’ll let him live.” * “I must think—give me time,” murmured Lura. Her pretty brown hand played with the salt cellars that stood upon the table, with pepper boxes and mustard pot. Opposite to her, complacently expectant, Grinnell lolled and leered. Adrian, despite his nearness to death, had to smile as Lura picked up the large red-pepper sifter. He recalled his first meal at that table, when Baines had passed it to him and, unwittingly, Adrian had used the contents freely. How Lura had laughed! but speedy and merciful to rush for a glass of milk to subdue his sufferings. She did not laugh now. Charming little actress that she was, where interest in Adrian Burgoyne and love were the impelling motives, she assumed the role of a thoughtful, distressed maiden. Suddenly she removed the cover of the pepper box and flung the fiery granules squarely into the face of the leering ruffian. Then she seized an iron kettle and swung It across the head of the shrieking, blinded scoundrel, Grinnell. He went down like a shot. "Quick!” cried Lura, rushing to the side of Burgoyne and liberating him. “Tie him up, take his revolver and guard him till I return.” Adrian stood over the prostrate and helpless bandit. Glancing from the window, he saw Lura astride Grinnell’s own horse, speeding down the road. At a little distance she met her father, searching for Burgoyne to deliver a telegram that had just arrived from Leesburg. It told that the detectives had captured all of the bandits except Grinnell —cautioned Burgoyne to look out for the outlaw chief, who had threatened a direful vengeance. - The local authorities, the old terror removed, were willing to co-operate now with Burgoyne. They took Grinnell to the jail at Leesburg. “This Is for you,” spoke Adrian to Lura, one (lay a week later, “it is the reward of five thousand dollars offered for the capture of Grinnell, which you have earned.” “Oh, no! no!—I cannot accept it;lndeed I cannot,” she demurred. “There Is no other way,” insisted Adrian. Then their eyes met. “Lura,” he said softly, “you must know that I love you.” “You —you !• —me, a poor, humble girl!” “Poor, Lura? Dear, you have more money how than myself. A frontier heroine, indeed—you have saved my life twice over. Will you trust your own to my keeping?” She drew closer to him, her face radiant. “Oh, Adrian!” she cried, “the world seems all made over again. I am so happy!” -