The Albany register. [volume] (Albany, Or.) 1868-18??, 1868-12-12

! tempting 20 look into some black guilt.
My situation was lonely enough; but !
! experienced secret satisfaction IN being
where I was and not down in the cave,
where I rather felt than thought some
persons were lying In wait for me.
| At length that same low murmur, a.
of voices, was again heard, and again
listened, with my whole sense of hearing
on the stretch. sool became satisfied
that words were spoktn-but then came
the thought. that it might be the mystic
rious voices I had heard at intervals all
my life However, was not long kept
in dout t. for presently could distinguish
the words, as if the speakers in the cave
had come out into the open air.
cit is strange he does not make his
appearance said one voice.
81 do not know how to account for it"
replied another.
Are you sure you -sxw him r. in
qu;red third.
/" tell you he was within mile Of
here, coming along with his pack. Here
he usually passes the night, and why he
is not here is more than can conject-,
urc"
"If he had gone past, we should have
heard from the others before this" re-
marked the first speaker.
sUndoubtedly," was the reply. "He
must be somewhere on the mountain
unless he has fallen over the precipice,
in which case we shall find all we want
of him in the morning, and be saved the
trouble of blood letting"
Gould he have got near enough to
have heard our voices?" inquired an
other.
mo, for Ricardo is SO posted that he
would have seen or heard him 6rst."
We'll, then, he may be here yet.
Hark hush there are steps coming this
way now!' said the speaker in whisper,
which could just hear, the night being
still, aud my position directly over the
parties. NV, then, be ready and let
us make quick work Of it r.
After This the robbers were as silent as
death. aud with feelings that must be left
to the imagination, | listened for the
approaching footsteps which knew We're
| N ;staken for mine. It was with shud-
der, and strange kind OF dread, that I
heard steps steadily approaching, with
now and then slight rustic of the bushes,
| and the occasional loosening and rolling
| of stone. felt that some human being
was moving onward, to his doom. and 1
would have called out 10 him to- beware
| if had known could have saved him
with anything shor, of the penalty Of my
own life.
trembled. and the perspiration started
out at every pore.
| Suddenly there came wild, prolonged
shrek and the words
"Oh, heavens! am stabbed I am.
killed! am killed!'
Gracious heaven" cried another,
''what have We done?-that is Ricardo's
voicer A light here, quick r.
+ Tho aextnloment light flashed upon
|fhe f. gure of K1man being stretched
upon the ground, in the last struggles of
death.
A scenc of CONSERVATION and confusion
followed when the robbers found they
had slain their own lookout, or sentinel,
in mistake for me. Some blamed the
man who struck the fatal blow, and some
the i'll fated man himself. for approaching
in the way he did without proper warming.
1t was finally decided that he had been
killed by mistake, and that no one should
be blamed for foreordained fatality
So they took up the body from which
The last spark Of life had now departed.
and carried it away.
thanked heaven for my own wonder
ful preservation, aud could not but feel
that the awful rctribution was just