LITMIR.BIZ

      "Do you s'pose I'm fool enough to tell you if you don't know?" said Anderson Crow. "Just as like as not you'd be claimin' the thousand dollars reward if you knowed it had been offered! Spread out, boys, an' we'll show 'em dern quick!"

      There was dead silence inside the house for a full minute. Every eye was wide and every mouth was open in surprise and consternation.

      "A thousand dollars reward!" gasped Jack Barnes. "Then, good Lord, I must have done something!"

      "What have you been doing, Jack Barnes?" cried his bride, aghast.

      "I must have robbed a train," said he dejectedly.

      "Well, this is serious, after all," said Crosby. "It's not an eloper they're after, but a desperado."

      "A kidnaper, perhaps," suggested his wife.

      "What are we to do?" demanded Jack Barnes.

      "First, old man, what have you actually done?" asked the Reverend "Jimmy."

      "Nothing that's worth a thousand dollars, I'm dead sure," said Barnes positively. "By George, Marjory, this is a nice mess I've led you into!"

      "It's all right, Jack; I'm happier than I ever was before in my life. We ran away to get married, and I'll go to jail with you if they'll take me."

      "This is no time for kissing," objected Crosby sourly. "We must find out what it all means. Leave it to me."

      It was getting dark in the room, and the shadows were heavy on the hills. While the remaining members of the besieged party sat silent and depressed upon the casks and boxes, Crosby stood at the window calling to the enemy.

      "Is he ready to surrender?" thundered Anderson Crow from the shadows.

      Then followed a brief and entirely unsatisfactory dialogue between the two spokesmen. Anderson Crow was firm in his decision that the fugitive did not have to be told what he had done; and George Crosby was equally insistent that he had to be told before he could decide whether he was guilty or innocent.

      "We'll starve him out!" said Anderson Crow.

      "But there are ladies here, my good man; you won't subject them to such treatment!"

      "You're all of a kind—we're going to take the whole bunch!"

      "What do you think will happen to you if you are mistaken in your man?"

      "We're not mistaken, dang ye!"

      "He could sue you for every dollar you possess. I know, for I'm a lawyer!"

      "Now, I'm sure you're in the job with him. I s'pose you'll try to work in the insanity dodge! It's a nest of thieves and robbers! Say, I'll give you five minutes to surrender; if you don't, we'll set fire to the derned shanty!"

      "Look here, boys," said Jack Barnes suddenly, "I've done nothing and am not afraid to be arrested. I'm going to give myself up." Of course there was a storm of protest and a flow of tears, but the culprit was firm. "Tell the old fossil that if he'll guarantee safety to me I'll give up!"

      Anderson was almost too quick in promising protection.

      "Ask him if he will surrender and make a confession to me—I am Anderson Crow, sir!" was the marshal's tactful suggestion.

      "He'll do both, Mr. Crow!" replied Crosby.

      "We've got to take the whole bunch of you, young man. You're all guilty of conspiracy, the whole caboodle!"

      "But the ladies, you darned old Rube—they can't—"

      "Looky here, young feller, you can't dictate to me. I'll have you to—"

      "We'll all go!" cried Mrs. Crosby warmly.

      "To the very end!" added the new Mrs. Barnes.

      "What will your father say?" demanded the groom.

      "He'll disown me anyway, dear, so what's the difference?"

      "It's rather annoying for a minister—" began the Reverend "Jimmy," putting on his hat.

      "We'll beg off for you!" cried Mrs. Crosby ironically.

      "But I'm going to jail, too," finished he grimly.

      "All right," called Crosby from the window; "here we come!"

      And forth marched the desperate quintet, three strapping young men and two very pretty and nervous young women. They were met by Anderson Crow and a dozen armed men from Tinkletown, every one of them shaking in his boots. The irrepressible Mrs. Crosby said "Boo!" suddenly, and half the posse jumped as though some one had thrown a bomb at them.

      "Now, I demand an explanation of this outrage," said Jack Barnes savagely. "What do you mean by shooting at me and my—my wife and arresting us, and all that?"

      "You'll find out soon enough when you're strung up fer it," snarled Anderson Crow. "An' you'll please hand over that money I paid fer the hoss and buggy. I'll learn you how to sell stolen property to me."

      "Oh, I'm a horse-thief, am I? This is rich. And they'll string me up, eh? Next thing you'll be accusing me of killing that farmer up near Boggs City."

      "Well, by gosh! you're a cool one!" ejaculated Anderson Crow. "I s'pose you're goin' ter try the insanity dodge."

      "It's lucky for me that they caught him," said Barnes as the herd of prisoners moved off toward the string of boats tied to Mr. Bracken's wharf.

      "Come off!" exclaimed Squires, the reporter, scornfully. "We're onto you, all right, all right."

      "What! Do you think I'm the man who—well, holy mackerel! Say, you gravestones, don't you ever hear any news out here? Wake up! They caught the murderer at Billsport, not more than five miles from your jay burg. I was driving through the town when they brought him in. That's what made me late, dear," turning to Marjory.

      "Yes, and I'll bet my soul that here comes some one with the news," cried George Crosby, who had heard nothing of the tragedy until this instant.

      A rowboat containing three men was making for the landing. Somehow, Anderson Crow and his posse felt the ground sinking beneath them. Not a man uttered a sound until one of the newcomers called out from the boat:

      "Is Anderson Crow there?"

      "Yes, sir; what is it?" demanded Crow in a wobbly voice.

      "Your wife wants to know when in thunder you're comin' home." By this time the skiff was bumping against the landing.

      "You tell her to go to Halifax!" retorted Anderson Crow. "Is that all you want?"

      "They nabbed that murderer up to Billsport long 'bout 'leven o'clock," said Alf Reesling, the town drunkard. "We thought we'd row down and tell you so's you wouldn't be huntin' all night for the feller who—hello, you got him, eh?"

      "Are you fellers lyin'?" cried poor Anderson Crow.