The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1865-08-25

At this point Stoker turned away, and
went to look at the dead man.
The corpse had been brought up from
the wayside upon the corduroy; as looked
down where it had been found, it struck
me that very little blood had been there
You may call it chance, or you may ad.
NIT that my perception was keener than
most men, but, at all events, my mind be-
gan to take turn in direction not YET
explored by the officers who had preceded
me in the search. At first I suspected
that the man, or men, who had committed
the crime, resided in Jacksonville OF
Huntsville. I had drawn enough out Of
two old hunters to convince me of that.
Next, suspected that Lamar Stoker had
some hand in the bloody business. BE
looked fit for the work and within the
past few minutes, had exhibited signs OF
guilt, which to me were apparent enough.
Loose straws indicate the way Of the
wind, and the man who seeks to ferret out
great things, must not pass over little
things. Why was there no blood spilled
where the dead man was fonnd2 Surely,
not because the gates had not been opened
for his skull had been broken to q pumice,
and it was evident enough, to one well
versed in such matters, that nearly all the
blood in his body had run out. But where
was it.? From such man as that, killed
by so furious q wound, with all the arte-
ries and veins broken, there could not
have flowed less than two gallons of blood.
But where was it? There had not been q
pint spilled where the body had lain. I
looked to see if could see blood anywhere
else; and by and by I found clot nearer
to the creek. I continued to move on,
and at the very edge of the stream, I
found more blood-not much-only few
drops-but I knew that it was blood.
And found the prints of feet there deep
ly sunken in the mud
At this point the idea which had before
been dimly floating in my mind as posi-
bilty, became very near reality. These
prints were at some little distance from
the sunken bridge, and the man who had
made them had crossed a point of turf in
reaching the road. l selected place
where the mud was quite hard, and here
stepped along by the side of the other
track. l was heavy man, and yet the
prints we're not bali SO deep as those other
prints. What did this signifya 1t signi-
fed very plainly to me that the man who
had made those deer tracks had borne q
very heavy load upon his shoulders
And thus / arrived at the conclusion
which explained why the search and in
vestigation of the officers for two years
had proved futile. They had searched in
the wrong place. They had taken it for
| granted that the murders had been COM
mitted upon the dark road in the swamp.
l was now convinced that the dead body
had just left had been borne to its present
place of rest from the shore of the creek.
And what ives here beyond that? How
came it on the shore of the creek? We
shall presently 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, 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 he was q very
ugly looking man but because he locked
to me exactly fit to help his master do
bloody work. He was thin. pale, cold
bloOded fellow, with low, receding brow;
sharp, cold eyes; small triangular nose,
and thick, heavy upper lip. If he had
been a larger man those characteristic fea-
lures would have been more prominent,
and people might have feared him; but
as it was, he had passed for a weakly, I'm.
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-wss removing my saddle from my
beast, spoke of the murder in the swamp
The fellow had heard all 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
for him to have exhibited some little feel
ing; and the fact that he did not do 90,
led me to conclude that he had schoOled
himself to act his part.
| After had seen my horse taken care
of, l walked out behind the inn, upon the
brow of point of table land, and short
distance below l saw the bend of the
creek. Towards the creek made my
way, and when within few rods of the
water, stopped. l saw something on the
grass-a dark, red clot, hanging upon a
stout blade, and bending it down,
stopped, took it upon my fingers, and
| found it to be blood.
pushed on to the shore of the stream,
but 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 the swamp which made ND behind
the bluff upon which the village stood. l
made my way to the thicket of vines and
cottonwood, and presently found boat
drawn up upon the shore of the creek. 1t
was of kind called "dug-out," and was
wet outside aud in, as though it had lately
| been washed down.