The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1869-09-18

had the assurance to laugh, saying that they
knew all along it was only trick
The town watch boldly took possession of the
ground, and the crowd began to disperse. Knots
OF gossips fingered here and there near the place,
INDUCING In vain surmises as to who the invisi-
bic gunners could he. IL ~, -
Ihere was no more noise that night but
many tirn'd person lay awake expecting re-
nswal OF the mysterious cannonading. The old
get inhabitant refused to go to bed ON any terms,
out persisted In sitting up in roeking-chair,
with his hat and mittens on until daybreak.
thought should never get to sleep. The
moment l drifted off in doze fell to laughing
and woke myself up. But towards morning
slumber overlook me, and had series of disa-
greeable dreams, in one Of which / was waited
upon by the ghost of Silas Trefethen with an ex-
brilliant bill for the use of his guns. In an
pther, was dragged before court-martial and
sentenced by Sailor Ben, in a frizzled wig and
three-cornered cooked hat, to be shot to death by
Baileys Battery-a sentence which sailor Ben
was about to execute with his own hand, when
suddenly opened my eyes and found the sun
shine lying pleasantly across my face. l tell you
| was sladi
That upaccountable fascination which leads
the guilty to hover about the spot where his
crime was committed drew me down to the
wharf as soon l was dressed Phil Adams,
Jack Harris, and others Of the conspirators were
already there, examining, with mingled feel
ing Of curiosity and apprehension, the havoc ac-
complished by the battery. LII
The fence was badly shattered and the ground
ploughed up for several yards round the place
where the guns formerly lay,-fornerly lay, for
now they were scattered every which way.
There was scarcely gun that hadn't bursted.
Here was one ripped open from muzze to breech
and there was another with its mouth blown in
to the shape of a trumpet Three of the guns
had disappeared bodily button looking over the
edge OF the wharf we saw them standing ON end
IN the tide-mud. They had popped overheard in
their excitement.
II tell you what, fellows" whispered Phil
Adams, ''lts lucky we didn't try to touch 'em off
with punk. They'd have blown us into flinders"
People living by the sea are always more or
lses superstitious. Stories of specter ships and
mysterious beacons, that lure vessels out Of their
couree and wreck them on unknown reefs, were
among the stock legends of Rivermonth and
not few people in the town were ready to at
tribute the firing of those guns to some supernat.
ural agency. The Oldest Inhabitant remember
ed that when he was boy dinl-looking sort of
schooner hove to in the offing one foggy after
noon, fired off a single gun that did not make
any report, and then crumbled to nothing, spar,
mast and hnlk, like piece of burnt paper.
The, authorities, however, were of the opinion
that human hands had something to do with the
explosions, and they resorted to deep laid strate-
gems to get hold of the said hands. One of their
traps came very near catching us. They artful-
ly caused an old brass feld-piece to be LETT on a
wharf near the scene Of our late operations
Nothing in the world but the lack of money to
buy powder saved us from falling into the
clutches of the two watohmen. who lay secreted
for week in a neighboring sail loft.
1t was many day before the midnight bonn
bardment ceased tn lie the town talk. The trick
was 80 audacious and on SO grand scale that
nobody thought OF connecting us lads with it.
Suspicion at length grew weary of lighting on
the wrong person, and as conjecture-like the
physicians in the epitaph-was in vain, the Riv.
errnouthians gave up the idea Of finding out who
had astonished them.
They never did find out, and never will, I'M
less they read this veracious story.