Amador weekly ledger., 1857-11-07
CHAPTER VIII.

dAf LEM VIII.
WATERS STORY CONCLUDED TWO DEATHS
During the recital of Mr. Stanford, had
lost not word; my senses had become quick
ened; saw that | had been fouly dealt by
and that Minnie had been the victim Of a
dsstardly scheme. Her husband was vii
lain and, should unmask him? That was
question | did not then decide. When
learned that none of my letters had been re-
ceived after the notice of what they suppos-
ed to be my death. As Eastfeld was the post
master, | saw through his designs, so sue
cessfully carried out, but it was too late to
thwart them. Before retiring to my bed |
detailed to my friends the cause of my Jour-
ney, the reasons of my delay and my final
success They rejoced at my prosperity,
while | looked on my wealth as worthless
now that Minnie was not to share it with me.
That night sleep was stranger to me, and
the morning found me with burning fever
and unable to arise. A physician was sent
for and | recollect of his watching over me
for day and then all was oblivion. They
say / was derious for weeks; suppose |
was 1t was in July ere | recovered so as to
walk out of doors. During my GONZALES
cence | had pondered over the wrongs of
her | loved, and had resolved to collect
what facts | could to fasten the guilt where
it belonged and then 'bide my time. / had
no desire to see Minnie and did not even en-.
qure how she had received the news of nv
being alive
AS soon as | was able | hade a fearful
adeu TO those two who alone of earth seemed
my friends and started eastward to ascer-
tain for myself the fact Of the newspaper re-
port of my death. | expected hero to fnd
the end of that thread which would unwind
the whole rascality Judge of my surprise
on arriving at the village where the death was
reported have occurred, to learn from un-
doubted sources that a young man, calling
himself Isaac Waters and closely resembling
me, had died there at the time specified, and
was shown where he had written his own
name on the register He gave no account
of where he was from nor could they learn
as he had been delrious for days before he
died.
My next move was to go to the post Office
where | had mailed my letters to the West
and get the dates of their being mailed.
then wrote to Washington, sending these
dates, and learned from there that the way
bills for all my letters had been regularly re-
turned from the Office to which they had
been directed Here was first evidence Of
the fraud of Eastfed. He had doubtless
been innocent of wrong towards me till the
arrival of one of my letters post-marked af-
ter the date of the death This alarmed
him and he opened the letter to see if | were
not dead, and afterwards suppressed all that
came, as ignorance of my being alive was as
good for his purposes as my actual death.
remained absent from the West for over
year, receiving occasional letters from my
friends, but by tacit understanding they
said nothing about Minnie; till in the last
letter they ever wrote ne they told me she
was deadl Yes, dead; and did not die in
these arms. She never knew of the duplicity
of her husband, | had spared her that addi-
tion to her unhappiness. | was seized with
an Unsuitable desire for revenge 1t scared
my eyeballs and dried up the fountain of my
tears. returned to satiate my thirst; met
Eastfeld in public and there branded him as
a villain. As | expected be challenged me
we fought, and-no matter; he was not bu-
ried by the side of Minnie. When the Mis-
sissippi gives upall her dead then will he come
FORTH That night spent at Minnies grave
and the next day was on my way | cared
not whittier. For years was wanderer
and seeker Of adventures The war with
Mexico opened a field for my restless spirit.
returned to my adopted State and volun-
teered in one of her regiments; gained hon.
ors, but that is nothing. At the close of the