The Elk advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Elk Co., Pa.) 186?-1868, 1866-07-05

entirely refusing to confess that the sto-
len money had been directly traced to
her by plan of John Gordon and old
Brown, the different coins having been
marked to lead to detection, and spent
by Martha Field at differnt places in
the village and that John Gordon, up
on his return from the squire's, where
Martha was committed, and finding that
Lefty had fed, started in pursuit, and
was brought in halt an hour afterwards
with broken arm, having been thrown
from his cart This was news indeed
for gossips, and great capital they made
of it. The stories that few from mouth
to mouth did not lose in telling. Some
had it that Martha had robbed John
Gordon of many hundreds of pounds,
in revenge for his refusal to bestow a
marriage portion on herself and David
Bigelow others that Martha was thrown
into prison by the landlord in revenge
for assisting Lefty in a marriage that
would surely throw him out of the tav-
etn stand. These cried shame, and ask
ed each other if John was not rich
enough to give Lefty her little property,
and if he was not old enough to give up
to younger men. It was strange then
how many had seen and fore.told all
these things to themselves long ago
how many knew it would be SO, and we're
not surprised in the least; and how
many were ready with the charitable
hope it would be lesson to John Cor.
don, and lead him to zee that there was
an instability in wealth, and nothing re.
ally true bur their advice.
A week rolled by, and John Gordon
left his room, with his broken limb in
splints hanging by sling. He had al.
tered, people said, in that week to be at
least ten years older. His face was
drawn and haggard, and the rosy, heal.
thy hue had gone out of his cheeks.
His eyes we're dim, and there vas no
loud hearty laugh ringing through the
house as in the old days. The loungers
and gossips watched the old msn as he
went vacantly about the place with
something like awe. Thep watched
him as he was confronted in his own bar.
that spot which one short week before
was his stronghold, by another face as
pale and tasgard as his own, who asked
for justice on behalf of Martha Field.
and was refused. Then this man, who
was none other than David Bigelow,
stood up before the landlord and the Gu.
rious crowd, and told how Martha Field
was guililess, and that John Gordon
knew it, when in his base anger and de.
sire to remove the means OF communica
ton between his daughter and Philip
Conger, he sent an innocent girl, who
should have been as dear to him as a
child, to criminal prison. John Cor.
don trembled with the rage he was obi.
ged to suppress, and David Bigelow wen,
on Yes! he knew that the money
which he had marked as trap was ia
ken by his daughter Lefty, as she had
perfect right to do; for was not the
house aud all within it-ay, and all it.
profits, even to the last penny, even the
lands he had bought with those profits
hers ? Yes. And he, John Cor
don, knew this and more. He knew
that Lefty Gordon had taken this mon
ey as she would take any other thing
that was her own, and had given it tc
Mattha Field to purchase such articles
as her father wrongfully denied her
paper, pens and ink, that she might
write to the man to whom she had be.
trothed hersel;, and such things as were
necessary to have when she fed from
the homo where she was a prisoner.
This he said and more. That Mar.
tha Field had refused to say anything
on the night ofhet arrest, knowing that
Lefty would step forward for her pro.
lection at the proper time that it was
Letty's intention to have left her home
with Philip Cohger within few days of
the one on which Martha was arrested ;
but why the fight should have occurred
on that evening, so prematurely was an
unexplained mystery One thing was
certain, that when Lefty Gordon left
home she did not, nor did she now,
know of the arrest Of Martha Field, OF
she would come forward at any risk and