Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1858-11-18

twenty yards in length, when two men rush
ed from behind the farther side of the bould-
er into the road and stood, with levelled guns,
only few yards distant from Mr.. Stogdon.
His horse, frightened at the sudden appear
auce of the men, whose blackened faces and
shaggy clothes made then look hideous
enough to startle both rider and steed, SHE'D
and refused to 90 forward.
The robbers advanced and demanded, as
they approached, the purse and the valuables
of the traveller, promising to spare his life,
if he would surrender them without noise or
resistance. Without making any reply, MIR.
S,ogdon quickly drew forth pistol from the
holster. A derisive smile passed over the
faces of his assailants at sight of the weapon.
1t was evelled and fired at the nearest rob-
ber, who fell dead upon the spot The 9TH
er, startled at the report, and terrified by the
fall of his companion, instead of firing his
gun dropped it and fled in the direction from
which he had come.
Before Mr.. Stogdon could draw and pre-.
sent his other pistol, the robber had turned
the corner of the boulder and was out of sight.
Urging his horse forward with some difficult
ty, for the dead body of the robber lay in the
road, and the animal could scarcely be made
to pass it, he discovered lateral gorge en-
teriug, from behind the boulder, the one
along which the highway ran. Hoping to
overtake the escaped robber, he entered this
gorge and rode some distance along tsrocky
bottom. The scene was wild and dreary,
presenting whatever is grand and impress
sive in mountain solitude. The deep ba-
sin of the gorge, covered with rock and tam
gled underground, and shaded almost to
gloom by the dense, overhanging forest,
seemed fit retreat for maraudiug bands. 1t
required no common nerve to penetrate alone
into its reccsses in pursuit of robber. But
the blood of the traveller was up, and he
little needed the risk he was running.
As he could neither see nor hear anything
to direct him in the pursuit, Mr.. Stosdon
checked his horse and remaining motionless
for short time, sheltered, by the aceiden-
tai screen of a low bushy tree, from observa-
tion in the direction the gorge receded from
the road. The song of the mountain birds
and the low murmur of tiny waterfalls, were
the only sounds he heard. The robber lad
vanished, like shadow, and neither eye nor
ear could tell the direction he had gone.
Having made up his mind to abandon the
pursuit, Mr.. Stogdon was in the act ofturn-
inc his horses head towards the road, when
he caught, through the branches of the tree
in front of him, the glimpse of a man run
ming rapidly up the side of the gorge, some
distance further up the deGle. AS pursuit
on horseback up the steep accivity was i'm
possible, he remained in his position and
watched, as we'll as he could, the movements
of the treating figure, which he had no doubt
was that of the fugitive robber.
Climbing from crag to crag, the robber
stopped at length in front of two lodges of
rock which projected from the mountain, a
few feet apart, thus making an entrance or
pass-way into the side of the dehle. He
looked earnestly for moment in the .,dlrec-
tion he had come, and then, entering be-
tween the rocks, disappeared from the sight
of the traveller.
Convinced that he had discovered the den
of the robbers, MIR. Stogdon at once decided
to return to the blacksmith.shoP at the base
of the mountain, and give information to the
neighborhood. Making careful ocular e1-
ploration Of the surrounding scenery, and
| fixing in his mind as many objects as he
could, which might serve to identify the spot
where the robber had disappeared, he turn
ed his horses head, and soon reached the
narrow pass in the main road. The body
of the dead robber lay as it fell, with the
blood puddled around it. Forcing his horse
with difficulty to pass it, he rode with arapid
pace, and soon reached the shop, where he
found several of the neighboring planters
and the smith still busy with speculation up,
on the mysterious Developments which the
latter had witnessed in the morning.
Mr.. Stogdon related to his eager and won,
dering listeners his adventure in the noun
tain, the death of one robber and the proba.
BILE discovery of the place of retreat of per
hans many more. In a few hours the
news spread through the neighborhood, and
brought together company of forty or fifty
men at the shop. 1t was decided, without
dissenting voice, to ascend the mountain
and storm the den of the robbers. Guns
axes, dogs and conveyances were soon pro
vided, and the line of march speedily com
menced.
The cavalcade, moving with celebrity anc
in silence, soon reached the spot where tht
dead robber still lay. The black coating
being wiped from the face, the body was re
cognised at once as that of the landlord o.
the hotel ut which Mr.. Stogdon had staid the
night before. The suspicious of the neigh
borhood, long entertained, as to his charac
ter, were now completely confirmed. HI
was the confederate of band of robbers
and his hotel was an outpost where plans were
concocted and the selected victims disarmee
and sent helpless to be robbed and murdered
in the mountain.
The body was placed upon baggage car
and sent with proper explanations, in tn
} care of a servant, to the family at the hotel
So secretly had his connection with the rob
) bers been maintained. that the return of tn
corpse, and the developments which followed