The Vermont transcript. [volume] (St. Albans, Vt.) 1864-1870, 1868-02-14

1tlU manu- from the pursuing OF gun.
On arriving at Salisbury, went to my
friend the attorney, who gave me ac-
cOmodation III his house while the ASST
es lasted in that city. | required the as
sistance of one of my friends clerks in
arranging the documents in a case of
some intricacy, and il was found neces-
sary to search the parish records for doc
uments. On receiving a message from
the clerk that he had found what was
wanted, | went to the yestry to read
them. TO see if there were any others
bearing on the same subject, / continued
search, and among those opened was
4 deed referring to an exchange ola piece
of land belonging to the Pensioners,
called the Croft, for another piece near
er the village, and further from Squire
Winters estate. The deed was of old
date, and was emblazoned with singu-
lar device, which the clerk no sooner
saw than he exclaimed, Why, this is
the same crest that was on the ring Ell
| len jackson showed-h
He stopped himself, and I said, 1.-THE
same crest that was on the ring Ellen
Jackson showed you, is Il ~
After little hesitation, he answered,
es. The crest was Il very curious one,
being four armsarrauged ina semicircle,
the hands grasping daggers, which We're
( pointed upwards
- Is the Ellen Jackson you referred 10
the daughter of the landlord Of the Phea-
SAINT? | seem TO remember young wo-
man fthat name who gave evidence on
Wards trial.
" Yes, was his answer.
And did Miss Jackson tell you where
she got such an uncommon ring@
Yes-no. Well the fact is, the ring
was on a hand. She showed il TO me
one morning when | called there in pas
sing, when her fatherwas out shooting
This Squire Winter is not such a his
father was he lets Jackson shoot over
his estate Us much as he pleases.'
The ring was on a hand ! suppose
you mean on her hand"
No, l don't. 1t was on hand as
dry and shrivelled as though il Were a
| hundred years old
And where did she get this hand
from? Is it left lying about where her
fathers customers can see it.
He blushed for some reason, as lac re-
piled, 4" don't think il is. She took it
/ from a box in her fathers bedroom, in
which he keeps his papers and other
things. | saw il when she was looking
for paper relating to some property left
ask me a question, and asked her TO let
me look at"
At this moment / dropped upon ano-
ther paper relating TO the matter in hand
and all my attention was given TO that
so | asked ne more questions at the time.
But in the course Of the evening, when
my friend and | We're smoking our eli
CARS, in the absence Of any more inter
esting subject 10 talk about, | said,
Your clerk tells me that Jackson, the
( landlord of the Pheasant, has got a ring
with the peculiar crest Of the Winters
ON it. Where do you suppose he got il
from ~
Heaven knows, Stole il from old
Winters finger perhaps; or, possibly,
the present squire may have given II 10
him: ! hear they are remarkably init
mate
But neither Of those HYPOTHESIS ac-
counts for it being on hand severed
from the body"
Severed from the body That is sim
gular, certainly. Why, Winter has lost
one hand Surely he would not have
brought his hand all the way from Afri-
ca to make a publican a present Of il. -
4" Not very likely, | should say"
After some further observation OH
the singularity Of the circumstance, the
conversation turned on matters in which
we were more Immediately interested.
had had a hard days work in court
on Saturday, and feeling fatigued, in
stead of going to church the next morn
ing, / went round by the cathedral to
Hartman, and from thence | wandered
along a road which brought me to a pub
lie house On looking up at the sign
board, | saw il was the Pheasant. The
day was a hot one, and the sign re-
minded me that there was Q bride
road which led through the wood in
which poor old Winter had been muir
dered. ] turned into the path, and the
first opening ! came to (which happen
ed TO be quite close TO stone cross, so
covered with species ofmoss, that had
some difficulty in making out that the
inscription on II was the spot where the
squire's body had been found, turned
out of il again, and found myself in q
small open space. Here | laid down,
with my face turned toward the bright,
blue sky. and watched the curious forms
which the light clouds assumed as they
followed each other across the confined
space which comprised my field of view.
Presently, / fancied that my back was
getting cold, and that this might be
caused by the dampness of the ground
on which | was lying. | got up, and
pegged away with the heel of my boot
to break through the grass, to ascertain
if the ground beneath was damp. ! tried
two or three places, and at last it struck
against the but of pistol, causing the
muzzel to turn upwards. Ipicked it up,
| and wiped the dirt off with some grass.
The barre was rusty; but there was a
small plate of silver behind the hammer,
which | SOON rubbed clean enough to
see that it was engraved, and little adj
ditional friction enabled me to see that
it was the peculiar crest of the Winters.
To a man of my profession, the vicinity
of the spot where Winter had been MUIR
| dered, naturally suggested that this pis-
toll was the weapon by which the crime
had been perpetrated. One idea followed
another. until | was led to connect to-
gether the murder, the hand and ring
possessed by Jackson, the hand lost by
| the present owner of Stockton Park, and
| the intimacy between the two men, so
unusual between men of such different
grades.
At first, I thought would consult my
friend the attorney before | did anything
in the matter; but on second thoughts,
| determined ON striking blow while
was on the spot, and had some leisure.
The door of the Pheasant was shut, as a
sort of compliment to the day, | sup
pose, certainly not to keep out custom
ers. | remembered the man, directly
walked in and saw the landlord. He
was in the act of cleaning his gun, and
without waiting to be questioned, l
said care you aware, Mr.. Jackson, of
the penalty to which an accessory to a
murder, either before or after the fact,
is libel ?''
He stared, and seemed quite Supplied
by the question. kept my eyes fixed
steadfastly on him, and at last he stam-
mered out, "What do you ask me such
a question for ?"
q You don't remember me, perhaps.
l defended poor Ward, who had such a
narrow escape of being hanged, through
your not telling the truth at the trial.
/ could see he was tempted to deny
what L said, but the positive tone in
which spoke puzzled him so much,
that after brief attempt at considera-
ton, he seemed to conclude that / had
got my information from Winter, for he
said, II suppose Squire Winter is a
friend of yours, and he has got you to
try and brighten me off,"
81 told him it was not so, and urged
him to make such a statement as would
enablem me to get Ward released; in which
case, promised he should be dealt with
leniently as possible, otherwise L would