Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1857-01-16

and read these printed words
"Two HUNDRED POUNDS REWARD.
i The above will be given to any per
son not actually concerned in the crime
who shall give such information as shall
lead to tie discovery of the murderer O.
murderers of John Sprigat, in the Swaff
ham Road, Henborough, on the night o
December the thirty-frst, eighteen hun
dred and thirty-five"
Why, you, Charlton, were one of thu
Ijurymen, if I remember right, who were
upon the inquest in that matter? I said
" l was, doctor and are you sure
there's nobody under the bed, or in the
cupboard, or behind the chimney-board
and his murderer also p
"Why, what hypocritical ruffian yor
must have been p
"Doctor, good doctor, have mercy up
on me; don't tell, don't tell and dom
think so hardly of me until you have
heard me out ] am not so bad as
seem.
g 1t was on a New Years Eve neal
twenty years ago, and very late at night
when l had utup my last shutter, and
was going TO lock the door of my shop
that stranger called. He had come
from the Swaffham end of the road, and
l had never seen him before in all my
life he could hardly speak at all he was
so drunk. He said he must have more
rum. | told him We only had ginger beer
and such like drinks and, besides, that ii
was too late at that time of night to sell
anything. He swore horribly at this,
said that my wife and I were both liars
that we had sold rum often enough to
other folks, he knew very well. He
managed to stagger up the stone steps
and pushed in at the door. He should
get into the back parlor, and sleep there
all night, he said. I took him by the
collar, intending to set him outside the
door, but he was a tall and stout made
man, and I could not-he struggled with
me in a dull heavy manner. | had hard
matter to thrust him from the parlor. /
did do so, and pushed him violently, and
he fell on the floor at full length, like a
log he never groaned after he had
touched the floor, but lay silent and mo-
tionless.
My wife cried w hat have you done
George? You've killed the man"
Nonsense, 1 said, but when we tried
to raise him, and saw the CLASSY look of
his eyes, knew it was true. A hundred
horrible thoughts would have crowded
into my mind at once, but that, swifter
than they, devices for getting the corpse
away and removing suspicion from our
selves had already filled it !; the simple
honest plan of telling the truth, and call
ing the police, at once, never so much as
suggested itself What if neighbor
should step in as the poor murdered man
had done, andfnd him lying there? There
was not a moment to lose I took the
dead man by the head, and my wife all
in tremble, managed to raise his
legs, and shutting the door carefully after
US, we bore our dreadful burden about
fifty yards along the Swaffham Road.
nothing was stirring. We heard the
tread of the watchman outside our closet
door, and his past twelve o'clock p die
away in the distance, but we had put out
the lights, and felt certain that he had OBJ
served nothing unusual.
We went to bed Immediately. but
not to sleep; our ears were on the search
for the moment when the cry should arise
and we should know the body was found.
One o'clock, two, three, four; the time
crept on with painful slowness, and the
hours and quarters seemed to prolong
their iron voice horribly. And now the
dawn was breaking, and there was light
enough for chance traveller to see the
corpse. There was a turn in the Swaff-
ham Road beyond our house, and it was
farther than that; and yet dared not
look in that direction as undid the shut
tiers.
Watch, watch Help, help? Then
they have found him at last and the
street fills with a hurrying crowd and
run with them among the first. but my
wife, she is faint with terror, and dares
not move, telling the children who have
heard the cries, that it was nothing.
" 1t leans against the railing where we
set 1t; but its right hand points to me
Nobody saw my face, they were all SC
horror-struck with the dreadful thing. or
| should have beed carried off to prison
at once without any further proof, I know
/ As they were ahout - t.l-