Litchfield enquirer., 1856-05-15

place where you would strike the road, SO that
you were no great distance at any time from
where this meeting occurred. We must turn
out and look up this creature, boys"
81 expected to find the horse here-he came
on in this direction" said Henry.
"No," said the Squire, Stoner' shouse is
beyond here"
Henry now seated himself at the table, and
great as was the uncertainty attending the fate
of Stoner these men were too much accustomed
to the vicissitudes and accidents common in
the life of the frontier hunter to be affected
by it for more than a few moments, and the
joke and the laugh very soon went around as
carelessly and pleasantly as if nothing had oc-
Cured at all unusual.
In the midst of this, the rapid tramp of
horse at full gallop was heard approaching
The Squire rose hastily and went out, while
the room was oppressivey still. In a few mo-
ments he entered with contracted brows and
quite pale:
"Stoner's negro has been sent over by his
wife to let us know that his horse has returned
with the reins Oh its neck and blood on the sad
die. He has been shot, gentlemen" We all
rose involuntary at this, and stood with blank
white faces, looking into each others eyes
The mailman p said one, in subdued tones,
breaking the spell of silence. =" Henry's beard
ed ghost" said another. "Ycs," exclaimed
several, "devil or ghost, that's the way it has
happened" II tell you what, Henry, has oc-
Cured to me ever since you finished your story
that this singular being was on the lookout for
Stoner and while You rode with your head
down thought that you were he, for there are
several points Of general resemblance, such as
size, color of your horses, &c, but that in the
long look he took at your face he discovered
the mistake, and, after leaving you, passed over
to the left and met Stoner returning and has
shot him. He is one of the Regulators though,
and Hnch is very bloodhound. shall send
for him to be here in the morning with the
boys, and they will trail him up, if he is the
devil in earnest, and have vengeance before
shutdown tomorrow" This seemed the most
reasonable solution of some of the inexplicable
features of the affair." as it was too dark to
think Of accomplishing any thing tonight, we
had to content ourselves with sound sleep
preparatory for action ON the morrow
Soon after day-break, We were awakened by
the sound of loud clustering voices about the
house. l felt sure that this must be Hincl's
party, and Oh looking out of my window saw
them dsmounted and grouped about the yard.
| recognized the voice of our Host in sharp, de-
cisive alteration, under our window, with some
one, whose harsh, overbearing tones convinced
me that it must be Hinch. listened anxious
ly, and heard him swearing in round terms,
that Henry's story was all CANNON, an Z" old
woman's tale" that he didn't believe word of
it !; but if Stoner was murdered, Henry was
the man who did it. / could only distinguish
that the Planters tone was angry and decided,
when they moved Oh out of hearing. How he
managed to quiet him, l cannot conjecture,
(Henry fortunately heard nothing of it, but
when we joined them, Hinch greeted us with
gruT sort Of civility He was thick-set,
broad-shoaldercd, ruffianly-looking fellow ; wear
ing the palpable marks of the debauchee in his
bloated person and red features.
We were soon under way. A ride of nearly
half the day through the scenes of yesterdays
adventure elected nothing, and We were all
getting impatient, when fortunately Henry's
search, undertaken at my earnest suggestion,
was successful in recognizing the place where
he had witnessed the curious apparition of the
evening before. On close examination the
moccasined tracks were discovered, aud with
wonderful skill the Regulators traced them for
several miles, till, fually, in an open glade
among the thickets, we found the fragments of
man who had been torn to pieces by the
wolves, numbers of which, with buzzards and
ravens, were hanging around the place. The
bones had been picked SO. clean, that it would
have been out of the question to hope to iden-
tify them, but for the fact that gun was ly-
ing near which was instantly recognized to be
Stoner's. l observed that there was q round
fracture, like hullct-holc in the back Of the
skull but it was too unpleasant an object for
more minute observation. We gathered up the
bones to take them home to his family be-
fore we left the ground, discovery was made
which startled every one 1t was the distinct
trail of saod horse. Now there was hardly a
horse in Shelby county that wore shoes, for
| where there were no stones, shoes were not nc
cessary-certainly there was not horse in our
company that had them on. This must be the
horse of the murderer Of course Henry was
freed. even from the suspicion of these brutes.
They believed that this trail could be easily fol-
lowed, and felt sure now that they should soon
come upon some results. They set off with
great confidence, trailing the shod horse till
nearly night, when, in spite of all their ingenui-
| ty, they lost it.; and though they camped near
the place till morning and tried it again, could
never find it. They were compelled to give up
in despair and scattered for their separate homes
The very next day after their breaking up,
followed the astounding report that the horse
of second one of their number had galloped
| up to his masters door with an empty saddle.
The Regulators assembled again, and after a
long search the body was found, or the frag-
ments of it rather, bare and dismembercd by