Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1870-03-24

next morning. YOU must understand
THAT I, left long faysip very nFly, 20
that 4 should be sd faf ~ Menchanon my
way back, before. any one was stirring. !
felf sfsthsri duSlhiSh Whom, after D had
heard and returned q whistle, three men
slipped out from under the shade OF q tree,
and roughly threY, o. long heavy sack on
board; this they quickly covered over,
and then ali went TO sleep with scarcely
word. woke them, - / had promised,
at the appointed place; they hurriediy
Jumped out, dragged the sack onto the
bank, gave me half q sOvereign, and then
for q week or two / saw no more of them.
"Of course this led TO my intimacy
with other members Of the gang, and, Ger
tainly, never in my life came ACROSS such
q horrible crew; thought bargees and
navvies were bad enough, but they were
babies to this lot. The way they used to
talk and swear about their last job, when
it hadn't brought so much as they expect
ed, made my blood run cold /; especially
one Steve Morrak, or some such name
they called him. He was short, squirt.
ing fellow, and certainly tile worst Of the
whole, although. be was the only one who
never got drunk this, however, he never
did. Over and over again, when Sim.
mons-who, after all was the best of the
gang-was letting his tongue run too
freely, this Steve has pulled him up short,
especially IL. as was often the case after
drink, Simmons talked about my being a
safe man to trust, and the like. l own l
had my suspicious that, whether they had
ever done so or not, there were some
among them who would not mind going
hon afn hndipQ
and sometimes wished had never joined
in the business but the halfsovereigns
came in pretty often for doing nothing,
and so l got over my dislike.
Zone day, while things were in this
looking sort of party standing on the
wharf, watching us load, at the London
end, of course, mean,-and ne kept on
staring so long, that at last said, You'll
know me again, hope, old 'un.' Well,
he says, with smile, l know you now,
when / come to hear you speak. You
are Bob Purrell, whose father was my
fathers game-keeper.' Lor! yeu might
have knocked me down with feather!
or course he was. Why, the seedy look
ing party was young Mr.. Frederick
Arrowley, whose friends had been almost
te cS sn people %esss from 81
him how he was getting on; and he says,
I'm afraid, Purrcll, nobody that sees me
wants TO be told how I'm getting on any.
how he says, i want you TO do me
favor Well, to cut 1t short, this is what he
wanted. He had some friends, not 80 very
much better off than himself, it seemed,
down at Long Hayslip; still, as they were
better off than himself, he could always
get bed and supper, which, he said, with
another miserable sort Of smile, was more
than he could reckon on with certainty,
now, and he wanted me to give him ride
down sometimes OF course l agreed,
and many is the ride I have given him,
accordingly, and such q cheerful, good
tempered fellow never saw. He seemed
so uncommon clever, too, and such q
scholar, that never could make out why
he didn't get on, and make his fortune:
but, somehow, Eve noticed, gentlemen,
that 1t isn't altogether them that is the
cleverest, TO my fancy, as makes their
fortunes. 'f'fF -
swell, a. ! was saying, he was 80 good
tempered and CHEEKY. Why, many and
many's the time, as the cold autumn
nights came on, that he has crawled up
hardly able TO walk, so weak for want of
food, and he would say, Halo! Bob, is
the yacht ready to sailf I hope the skip
per has got some 'bacca.' Well, Ia give
him bit Of 'bacca, and then, perhaps he
would tell me he had had nothing to. eat
all day, and he would look that bad, that
If he had died there and then | shouldn't
have wondered! but for all this, he was
full Of his Jokes, as il he hadn't a care in
the world. Gradually, he came, naturally
enough, to know q little about the body
snatchers, though I'm not quite sure that
he knew exactly what they were up to-
He was always Joking and civil to them,
as was his way, bat he didn't like them
Bob, be used to say, your friends are
about the ugliest customers l ever came
q nigh, and when have a yacht OF my
own, shall certainly not invite them as
passengers jagag9 roy IL I
"Well, gents, time went on, and the
winter came, and poor Mr.. Arrowley got
weaker and weaker. He had no regular
work didn't know how TO do anything
useful, he said; but he used to copy
writings, believe, somewhere, now and
then. Well, gents, writing is fine thing,
know but I really don't sec that 1t
does anybody much good. / have known
more poor people that could wflto IMAM
what couldn't. However, as was saying,
the autumn came, and the winter and a
previously cold and wet winter 1t was.
The gang had always talked Of the stroke
of business they meant to do In the dark
nights, when there was nobody about !;
but, somehow or another, things seemed
to 20 wrong with them. The neighbors
suspected something was in the wind, and
watch was often set.
"Of course, if they hadn't had the sex.
ton to help them, all would have been
found out before. But in every ground
in each of the four churchyards down my
way, at any rate-they had the sexton in
pay; and he used To give them informa-
ton. Three times running did they 60
down for nothing; and the way they
went on about 1t was awful. Unluckily,
Mr.. Arrowley came across them In their
last excursion; and something they said
let the secret out. He only laughed; but
how he did rally them, to be sure He
drove them almost wild; and if hadn't
interferred, I think they would have
pitched him into the canal then and there
When they had gore, begged him to
mind what he was about with such des.
perate set of rOughs, that was no cOmpa.