The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1866-11-22
sar'e'"a, sr!r ,'di:if ia i3:ifs. aud entire conf
denee, l judged between them. "a.

husband, h'|stla :. and wife. aud entire conf;
denee, Judged between, bet, ii them.
We have three children. .''i Thev ve,,
opoc a few hours visit 10 the ne,e bbor
hood, and 50 our day was ,,u a quiet one
ch,'dren are 80 little noisy sometimes
and I had not such stropg i; nerves uel, as
used to possess. And dinner; - passed
over with a sort OF peaceful case tba,
suits that meal best A cigar on the
lawn was quite in order atterward ; and
when the golden clouds began to rise
IN the west, as if. to meet the se.tino
sun in their embrace, stroll on the
river side was equally desirable. W.
should probably meet me- our young ne ones
my wife then said.
And SO we did. It was not loop he,
fore merry voices were heard ringing
through the little patch OF timber !
called my wood, and mingled with them
the joyous bark of a dog. Very soon
the white dress of my little daughte,
began to be visible among the trees, and
dark spot could be seen careerino
around the circle like mad creature
Ihen the whole group came running
toward us, the children laden with flow.
ers' and the dogs hair all flying in the
wind.
GLOW happy must you be-" said
Mrs. Layton to my wife; 1--WE have no,
any children, and"
At that moment she stopped sudden
y and turning to wife said. hastily,
"What pretty dog-I had one once''
and then she stopped; for Bob
that years before was taken from the
house in Firth street-rushed toward,
her' and began ieaping up to her face
as with the most extravagant joy. That
was enough to startle me. but worse fol.
lowed, for Bob suddenly caught sight of
my new friend himself, and in quicker
time than can write the words, had
sprung at his throat with the most saw
age yell that | ever heard from any an
imal, and literally bore him to the
ground. l take credit to myself that 1
acted promptly and with caImness. OF
course there was a mystery-what mys.
terry, flashed across my mind like light.
ming; but what thought aqd what I
did are two different things. What I
did was to drag the dog of, have him
tied up at once, and apologize to the
best of my ability for the strange attack
which I attributed, as plausibly las l
could, to some violent gesture, or other
accidental circumstance on the part of
Mr.. Layton. Fortunately, though my
wife knew the history of the dog, no
notion Of the truth occurred to her.
Layton himself was intensely agitated :;
his face was ghastly white; his wife
was lost in astonishment, and evidently
possessed no clue to the meaning of
what had happened. =.
Never in my lite did I feel so strange,
ly as l cid all tae rest of the day. To
continue a II the cordial attentions prop
er to ones guests while the mind is
racked with even business anxieties, IS
bad enough, but now
One thing was evident. I must al
lay all my feArs-can my reader doubt
what fears that Layton may have
conceived, and at the same time act out
to the end the part I had to play in The
retributive portioa of the drama. did
act it out as will be seen; and to this
day I do not know whether I did Alright
or no. The first thing was to arrange a
complete surveillance over Layton's
movements; and, in order to affect this
I could think Of no better way than to
telegraph to Peters. To do this before
right was impossible, for I felt that
Layton's eye watched me as a cat watch
es mouse. Nor coald I possibly leave
the house without exciting Lis suspic-
ion. I managed the affair in simple
way, however, as luck would have it.
One Of my bo,s-a smart lad; who will
make name some day greater than bis
father, and in his fathers profession,
too,--is fond Of drawing. I told him
in the evening, as We were all sitting
round the stove, that I wanted 10 look
at his last productions. He brought
his portfolio to me, and I began to crit
icise its contents, and with pencil in
my hand: The work was faulty, I told
him. There were errors that even l
could detect and remedy. Come here
to the table, Charley" said /, 'sand l
will show you what l mean." And l
took the book to another part Of the
room. "Here," said I, "look attentive
ly ut this" and I wrote: :.
II am goingt to write private mes
sage to you on this drawing"
II see, father,' said tho bright boy,
ssand will follow your Instructions.
I wrote again: #
"Go to the telegraph Office and telc-
graph to the Broome street Police Sta
ton for Peters, the detective tell him
to come directly. and bring help enough
to watch the house, and arrest any man
or woman leaving it tonight Go qui.
etly, Charley, aud take no notice.
"Oh,ehat's easy enough" said Char.
ley, III can very soon draw the lines in
that way. This picture is too bad to
shew Mr.. Layton, as I see now ): he
shall see the others, though" and he
tore it up. The portfolio was duly ad-
n,ired by visitors, and further pub
lio criticism made by me, and finally
Nfns, ar, Charlov with q demnra connta,