East Saginaw courier. (East Saginaw, Mich.) 1859-18??, 1863-12-23
NUMBER 22S.

stretching III straight lines from one
to the next, while the reduplicated
ringing strokes of my skates made Il
monotonous music for me, and could
hear the little fragments cut out by an
occasional heavy foot-thrust blown
cracking back by the wind.
Past Middletown Upper Houses
past tho level meadows of South Glas-
tenbury, famed for walnuts; past the
stern, barren hill-sides of Rocky Hill;
swept along for fifteen miles and
more and i now came shoot 'ng up
toward Glastonbury Landing, and still
neither saw nor heard any skater
rounded the point opposite the Ian
ding. From this place long straight
reach opens, the vista being closed by
the roofs and cupolas Of the County
Prison, situated in W. Now
could see uron the river, half way up
tho reach, the figure of man skating
along at good pace. 1t must DO
Tupling, and my coming upon him
while he was speeding 50 rapidly to-.
ward the prison might lie taken as an
omen of his fate and my success.
Now at last, | put forth the very
utmost of my strength, and going at
tremendous pace, was rapidly ap-
proaching the dishonest bankrupt.
was almost within speaking distance,
when he must have heard the ringing
of my skate-iron for suddenly looking
over his shoulder he saw me, and il-
stantly redoubled his speed, whiels
convinced me that he was my man.-
Away we flew for nearly mile in
perfect silence, except the scoring and
ringing skate-strokes but / steadily
Hl5aqftfif Hl5aqftfifM ala IA again, gam round the Bend in
the bow Of which the prison stands, l
spoke:
"Tupling, hold hard 1 want to
speak to youH'
"Go to -l" he vociferated, with
abundance of other curses, but slack
ened not his speed M
i continued to gain, and was just
considering whether / would knock
him down with my stick or lay hands
on him, when turning his head, he sud-
denly discharged first one pistol-shot
and then another, but, firing over his
shoulder, missed me. was even lift
ing my stick, and should have return
cd his comphment-unless he had
'winged" me with furthor use Of
his revolver when at once the gray
ice over which we had been gliding,
disappeared, and seemed to be skat-
ing on water. 1t was dead black ice.
IN air hole. An instantaneous, hor-
rid thrill of fright shot throug me-
Ny speed was too great to turn aside,
but with an acknowledgements shut
my eyes. and sprang desperately up
from the ice with both my feet.
The tremendous speed of my form
er motion, and the effort of that terri
bic leap, swung me over ten feet of
black, open water, and threw me, with
severe fall, fiat upon the thin but
tough black ice beyond. As leaped
| heard cry, the cracking of break
ing ice, a plunge--Tupling had driven
blindly into the ghastly open abyss!
/ had slid some distance beyond the
spot where l fell. Stunned and hurt
| arose with difficulty just as the piis-
on bell rang out an alarm upon tho
keen still air. The two pistol shots
had been heard, and it was probably
thought that some convict was escap-
ing. That was not exactly it; the old
bell might, however, be taken to sound
forth the signal that aculprit was Gag
ed. a glance showed me that we
were opposite the entrance of that SIN
gular body of water called W
Cove, the warmer outflow from whose
springs passed throuh narrow chan
mel into the river had kept open this
death-trap, within whose fearful circle
Tupling had risen to the surface, and
the swift current carrying him TO the
lower side of the oriiice, he was sus-
tanning himself by his arms, but made
Intellectual struggles to creep out upon
the thin ice, which cracked and broke
as he bore upon it.
"Hold still ~ L cried '1'll get
hurdle" SO hurried to the next
fence and was returning with hur-
die dragging behind me, when it oc-
CURED TO me that circumstances facil-
tated the making of good conditions
with friend John, since he was now in
a manner at my mercy. So l halted
and addressed him:
"You are John Tupling, are you ?"
Eyes"
You'll settle Longtime, Sellemup
& Co.'S bill if L get ouout, will you9"
He answered evasively, and with
some curses--but rather cool ones, for
lac was hardly able to speak by this
time =" Oh Are you going to let
man drown before your eyes? Shove
me that rail, will We ?"
And, in a rage, he made great splut.
tering in the water But he was get
ting little stiff, and. the ice kept
breaking, letting his head under.
was not to be satisfied with eva
sions, and repeated my demand.
agree to settle that bill in full,
with interest," and here's the rail If
not why, you must get out yourself.
Come, l can't wait all night here, I
have business at Hartford" And
dropping tho rail, / turned to depart.
Not that would have left the rogue
20 drown, but it was us well to let him
think SO. So he very sullenly agreed
to my conditions, upon which spread
myself fiat on the ice, crawled out un-
I'll | could reach him with the rail, and
held it as firmly as / could while he
raised himself upon it and cautiously
crawled out, resting partly upon the
rail and partly upon the ice.
Ashcscramblcd alongto frfner fcot-
ing, such was the intensity OF the cold
that every time his mittcn or his knee
touched tho ice, all dripping as he was
with water, they froze fast TO it; and