Nebraska advertiser., 1865-09-07

who had made them had crossed a poin
. Of turf in reaching the road / selected
place where the mud was quite hard
and here stepped along by the side of the
other track. was heavy man, and ye
the prints were not half so deep as those
other Pripts. Wha. did this signify? Il
signi6ed very plainly 20 me that the mar
who had made those deeper track:
had borne very heavy load upon bis
shoulders. And thus / arrived at the
conclusion which explained why the
search and investigation Of the officers
for two years had proved futile. They
had searched to the wrong place. They
had taken it for granted that the murders
had been committed upon the dark road
in the swamp. was now convinc ed that
the dead body / had just left had been
borne to its present place of rest from
the shore of the creek. And what was
here beyond that !! How come it upon
the shore of the creek? We shall see.
left the proper officer to take charge
of the corpse and having told Mr.. Wat
son to meet me in Jackson on the follow
ing morning, l started for the latter place
and put up my horse at the stable of the
inn--the inn kept by Lamar Stoker.
found the hostler and shuddered when /
looked at him-not because be was a
ugly-looking man but because he looked
to me exactly fit to help his master do
bloody work. He VISA thin, pale, cold.
blooded fellow, with low receding brow,
sharp, cold, small triangular nose, and
lhich upper lip. If he had been a
large man those characteristic features
would have been more prominent, ant
| people migt have feared him; but as it
was, be had passed fer a weakly, un
healthy man, and nobody had thought of
his doing harm. The landlord had not
yet returned, and while the hostler-his
name was John BOone,-was removing
py saddle from my beast, ] spoke Of the
murder in the swamp! The fellow had
heard oil about it, but had not been down
TO see the body. His master had gone,
and he had remained behind He spoke
freely and unconcernedly-in fact, too
much so. 1t would have been natural in
him to have exhibited some little feeling;
but the fact that he did not do so, led me
to conclude that he had schooled himself
to act his part.
After had seen my horse taken care
of, walked out behind the inn, upon the
brow of a point of table land, and a short
distance below l saw the bend Of the
creek. Toward the creek, 7 made my
way and when within a few rods of the
water. stopped. l saw something on
the grass-a dark, red clOt, hanging up
on stout blade, and bending it down.
/ stopped, took ii IN my fingers, and
found it to be blood
pushed on to the shore of The stream
bat there were no fresh footprints
there. / went back little way, and
found that the trail turned to the left,
and led to a point of :he swamp which
made up behind the bluff upon which the
village stood. / made my way into the
thcket of Vines and cottonwood, and
presently found a boat drawn up upon
the shore of the creek. twas of a kind
called ''dug.out. and was wet outside
and in, as. though it had been lately wash
eI down.
Perhaps you can imagine than l was
beo inuing to be excited in my search
The boat had been washed down and
ripsed b9t the fatal mark had not been
obliterated The water that gathered
in the bott,,m, standing IN little pools.
had a crimson tinge, and there were one
or two dark spcts which had not been
washed of.
So far as my own miud was concerned,
I had no doubt. Since first en,ertain-
ed an opinion of the crin1inalily Of Stokef,
every thing had turned oat just as ] had
booked for it /; and, when had lef: the
boat. had come 10 the conclusion to make
m3 next movement in my official Cspae-
ity. When had reached the inn, Stoker
had returned, and dinner was almost
ready. The host eyed me sharply, bat
kept my eOuntenance. 1t did Ne good
TO have him eye me in that fashion, Tor
knew that he feared me. Did ! not
know very we'll In short every event
from that time forth, gave weight to the
testimony I had already collected.
After dinner Stokef asked hCw long |
intended to stop With him. l had intend
ed to stop over night, and meet Watson
in the morning but my plan was chang |
ed. The wretch showed me more plain
ly than before that he mislrusted me,
and ] feared that something might turn
up to iniure my cause if delayed TOO