Quasqueton guardian. (Quasqueton, Buchanan County, Iowa) 1856-1858, 1857-11-19

mother could think of to divert my mind
from this longing. But | was now full
grown young man, and l could bear it
no longer, SO my folks, seeing that all
their efforts were in vain, ftted me out
with every thing that was necessary for
travelling, gave me their parting blessing,
and let me go.
now felt like free bird. l roamed
here and there, and at length found my
self on the Western borders. Here was
excitement enough for me. Late in the
afternoon, one day, was wandering
through the country on the extreme bor-
ders. l had not seen a house for several
hours. had not seen house for sew
eral hours. 1t was kind of attractive,
and kind of dreary. too. The woods
were very thick thro' there, and there was
a savage air about the place which led
my mind into imagination of bullet holes
i carried rifle myself-knife stabs
and scalped heads. The country around
there, did have terrible reputation for
such things-not by any means confined
to fights with the Indians, but relating to
lawless transactions between the whites
themselves. Well, / wandered on until
the sun had gone down and darkness had
come on, when / saw a cabin off on a
clearing which l had just entered. There
was really strong sense of relief on
finding that | was in the presence of civ
ilization, for although was by no means
a coward, still the terrible gloomness
about me, made me long for some sign
of fellow being.
quickly passed up the cart road to
the building and knocked-for altho' the
door was open, which surprised me some,
it then being late in, the evening" | in
stinctively obeyed the impulse of home
habit. There was no response to my
knocking, SO | repeated it louder. The
stiffness which followed the raps sent a
creeping dread through me. Certainly
the house was inhabited, for could see
that plain enough by the light of the
moon, which enabled me to look about
the premises some, and to see into the
room through the open door. Then why
was the door left open at that time of the
evening and no light to be seen.
Ny mind was in this state of uncer-
tainty, when l heard a sound which sent
the blood through my veins with horror.
1t was surely groan Before | could
move it was repeated. | could not be
mistaken now. A suppressed gurgling
groan it surely was. 1t seemed to come
from the back part of the hut. grasped
my rifle in my left hand and loosened my
knife with my right, and crept to the
spot where the sound seemed to be-
There was a small building there, which
was probably used to store some kind OF
produce in. l made my way to it aud
cautiously looked in.
Well might he groan-the man whom
saw in there. He was bound by thongs
of leather TO beam. The thongs had
cut deep into his flesh, during his efforts
to get free, and the blood was oozng out
and filling up the deep compressions
which the hard leather had made He
had been gagged by some old cloth,
which he had loosened just enough to
enable him to utter the horrible groans
which had startled me. As his bloodshot
eyes met mine, he instinctively compre-
hendod that was his friend. His eyes
cleaned with joy, and he tried TO speak
but tie effort resulted only in gurgling
choking sounds. His arms moved con
vuisiyely, with an impulsive attempt to
reach them out to me, which tightened
the hard thongs deeper into his lacerated
flesh. | quickly drew the gag from his
mouth but the relieving of his arms
and legs was much more difficult mat
ter /; it was critical work TO cut the thongs
without cutting the flesh but l succeed
ed in few moments, and he was instant
ly on his feet.
He was splendid specimen of West
ern pioneer-a tall, broad, muscular
form, and strongly marked face-nol
with wrinkles, but with muscles. He
was powerful man. | soon learned the
cause of his situation. In few mo.
ments he told me that band of reckless
ruihans, headed by deep-dyed villain,
who went by the name of Dick Hiskey,
had surprised him while eating supper
bound, gagged, and left him tied where
had found him, taking off everything
that was valuable on the premises. All
this he could have borne, but the villains
had worse object in view. They had
carried off his only daughter.
! He was n widower. His wife had died