Litchfield enquirer., 1856-05-15

this, accompanied by laughter, ran around the
table, while Henry drew long breath, wiped
his forehead, and threw himself into chair
Our curiosity was irresistibly excited, and as
Henry commenced, the whole company leant
forward eargerly.
If You wont interrupt me will tell you the
whole affair as it occurred"
No, no 60 on"
You know, when we parted, that Stoner
and myself went up the right flank of the tim
Der. Stoner was to take me to my stand and
then pass on to his OVID, some miles further down
the stream. lie accordingly left me and / have
not seen him since. BY the way, observe
that he is not here" he exclaimed, looking sharp
ly around the room. "Oh, he'll be here direct
ly," said several, Ego on" II hope So" he
replied in rather an under Tone "Well, was
pretty thoroughly tired of waiting before
heard the dogs, but that music, you know, strs
the blood and one forgets to be tired In
few moments fine buck came bounding by,
and fired. He pitched forward on his knees
at the shot, recovered and made Off / knew
he must be badly hit, and sprang upon my horse
to follow him." Rather verdant act, that
of yours" interrupted the Squire "Yes, l
found it to be So After pursuit of some twen-
ty minutes at full speed, it occurred to me that
| might get lost among the motifs and refined
up But it was too late; | was lost already.
How / cursed that deer as his white tail disap-
peared in the distance between two bushes. l
had common sense enough left not to go very far
in any one direction, but kept widening my cir
Giles about the place where halted in the hope of
meeting with the traces of some one of the par
ty; at last, to my great relief, | came upon an
old disused wagon trail, which, though the
winding way it held promised to lead to no
where in particular, yet went to show that l
could not be very far from some habitation. /
was following it through a high, tangled thick
ct which rose close on either hand and stoop-
ing over my horses neck was looking closely at
the ground, to discover the track of some of
you, when the violent shying of my horse made
me raise my eyes-and by Heaven, it was
enough to have stampedeF a regiment of dra-
goous. Just before me on the right, with one
foot advanced, as il it had paused in the act of
stepping across the road, stood a tall, ghastly,
skcletonlke figure, dressed in skins with the
hair out-a COMPOUNDED long beard-and such
eyes 1t is impossible to imagine them. They
didn't move at all in the shaggy, hollow sockets,
more than if they were frozen in them and the
glare that streamed out from them was so still
aud freezing Itsturtled my nerves so strange
ly, that come near dropping my gun, though
he was just swinging long rifle down to the
level, bearing on me-" "Why didn't you
shoot ?" "Ay why didn't i? / did not
think of selfdcfcnce, but of those eyes. The
rifle was suspended, but they continued fairly
to cling upon my features till conceived l
could feel the ice-spots curdle beneath my skin
us they crept along each lineament. The fact
is, caught myself shudderng--t was SO ghost
ly ;! After regarding me in this way about ten
seconds, he seemed to be satisfied the rifle
was slowly thrown back on the shoulder and
with al impatient twitch at his long grisly
beard with his bony fingers aud single stride
which carried him across the road, he plunged
into the bushes without word started in
vexation at my stupidity and shouted. lie did
not turn his head was now enragcd, and
spurred my horse into the thicket after him as
far as we could penetrate but lost sight of him
in moment. felt as if had seen the devil
sure enough aud actually went back to where
he stood tosee if he had left any tracks behind"
Every body drew long breath Il warrant
you found 'em cloven |" said one. Didn't you
smell SUI" "Nevcr mind what smelt--I
| found q very long moccasined track, or should
have been convinced that had seen something
supernatural. think he must be some maniac
wild man." Hes strange animal anyhow"
Singular affair."" was buzzed around the table.
Hear me out |" said Henry. after this in
cident, continued TO follow the devious wind
Jugs of this road, which seemed to turn toward
each of the cardinal points in the hour, until
my patience was perfectly exhausted, and it
was not till after sunset that it finally led me
out into prairie, the features of which thought
recognized. stopped. looked around for
the purpose of satisfying myself, when suddenly
horse burst from the thicket behind me, and
went tearing off over the plain with every indi-
cation OF excessive fright, snorting furously, his
head turned back, and stirrup flying in the
air." "What sort of horsey' "What col.
or was he 7" several broke in, with brcathless
Impotence. He was too far off for me to
tell in the dusk more than that he was a dark
horse-say about the color of mine" Stoncr's
horse was dark brown p some one said in a
low voice, while the party moved uneasiy in
their seats and looked at each other.
There was pause. The Squire got up and
walked with fidgety manner toward the win
dow to look out, aud turning with serious
face toward Henry, remarked, This is "a very
curious story Of yours, and if did not know
you too well, / should suspect yon were quiz
xing. Did you hear gun after you parted
with this lank-sided fellow you describe 7" 81
thought did once, but the sound was 50 dis
tant, that ] was too uncertain about its being
a gun to risk getting lost again in going to it, =
i WAS it about q quarter Of an hourby sun!'
THAT is, before shutdown, interrupted the Driver