Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1871-04-13

in the gloom he seemed to look s;outeI
and taller than usual. He did not speak
whereas be generally had little joke; but
now he took the jug in silence. fingered
for moment; but finding that he did moi
speak, was going down stairs, when ]
thought of his wife. Mr.. Lewis had al
most closed the door, when / said how
anxious fell. about her getting safely in
Though the storm, when, to my auaze-
ment, he replied, without opening the
door more than 3 few inches: 80 am
much Obliged for your kindness, Mrs
German, but my wife has been in for this
hour past" never was 30 astonished IN
nv life. had made two or three little
preparations to comfort her, and felt hurt
that l should not have been informed OF
her arrival. "Yes," he continued, she
came when the wind was roaring so loudly
that you did not hear her knock l let her
in; and as she was tired and wet, l
thought the best thing she could 90 was
to lie down at once Well, perhaps it
was but I could not help fancying that,
for all that, they might have treated me
with a little more consideration. How
ever, could say nothing; and SO l went
to bed, and. Is soon as the storm would
allow, to Sleep 4s- a@
The first thing l heard in the morning
from nv milkman was that only one Of
the convicts had tried to escape, and that
for the present he was still AZ large. 1t
was rumored in the town that it was
Colonel La Trouble who had got away,
but the government people would not say
much about it; the whole place was astir,
he said. All day long ! heard the same
kind of tidings repeated, and, in fact,
saw enough to convince me that extraor-
binary exertions were being made to cap
ture the runaway. The White Lion was
searched BY q party Of officers, and SO was
q house in the same street as my own,
where a number Of young men dodgers
were taken. l heard, too, that the rail
ways were watched, not only at our sta
ton, but that the trains were examined
twenty or thirty miles out, in case the
convict should have got in at some little
station. 1t was supposed, however, that
although these precautions were taken, he
was still on the island, as, from his wear
ing the prison dress, 1t would be so diff
cult for him to escape notice.
did not see Mr.. Lewis all day, nor his
wife; but, just at twilight, / was startled
by the latter coming quietly into my little
kitchen, and asking me for the milk. She
was pretty-looking young woman, wear
ing her hair in short curls it was fair hair,
and she was fair too, quiet and shy in her
manner, speaking in voice SO low that |
could scarcely hear her. She explained
that her husband had, unfortunately, taken
a severe cold, and would be obliged to keep
his bed for a day or 20. Ofcourse, offered
any assistance in my power. She thanked
me, and went up stairs. When she had
gone, could do nothing for the life ofme,
for many minutes, but sit and think of her;
there was an unaccountable feeling, quite
q certainty, Of having known her before,
although when or where / could not say.
So strong and strange was this impression,
that it was almost terrible to me, and, as /
said, could think Of nothing else for
long time. However, shook the feeling
off at last, and went about my work,
seeing no more of my ledger or his wife
that night.
Robert, at the White Lion, told me,
when he brought the supper beer, that, al
though it was hushed up as much as pos
sible, yet it certainly was the Fenian who
had escaped, and that it was one of the
most desperate and ingenious escapes ever
heard Of "Not, man." he said, as
believe in any of your ingenious es-
capes. don't believe in man doing
with rusty nail, or two prongs of q din
or some such thing, in four or
five hours what it would take couple of
smiths all day to do with basket Of tools
It's the warders, ma'am, and they make
these excuses that's what it is, ma'am."
This was the opinion Of Robert at the
White Lion, and must own that had, on
similar occasions, heard many people in
Weymouth express themselves to the same
effect.
Once or twice the next day Isaw Mrs. Lew
is, and each time the impression that had
previously met her grew stronger. fan
cied, however, that my looking straight at
her, to try and remember when 1t could
have been, disturbed her, so avoided do
ing 80 as much as possible, but for the
life Of me could not help doing it some
times. On the following morning | had
to 60 out for an hour or two, and, when l
came back, found my windows cleaned,
the mold in the flower boxes turned over,
and various little things done, which told
me that Lewis had been at work again, a,
indeed, found was the case. He had, I'M
fortunately, been taken very unwell just
before l came home, but previously he had
been busy as usual in the front of the
house. tsas5 ~
As all attempts to recapture the convict
had failed, and 80 there was no longer, l
suppose, q hope of keeping it quiet, that
night great bills were stuck up about the
town, offering $500 reward for the appre-
hension of the Fenian Colonel-for it was
he, after all-and one of these bills was
stuck up on an empty house just opposite
to my own door I naturally got to talk
ing about this with Mrs. Lewis; at least
talked, and she listened, for she said hard
ly word and, at last, when ! struck Q
light to find something she wanted, found
she was crying. I told her / was afraid she
was weak and low, and that her long journey
and her husbands illness had upset her,
and asked her to let me make her some
port wine negus the last thing that night.
She thanked me-, but declined; and when
she went away, the remembrance Of her
face, with the tears on her cheeks, seemed
ten times more familiar to me than ever.
determined to ask Mr.. Lewis, when I
saw him, If his wife had ever lived in
Weymouth, but it seemed as though I
never should see him again However,
did see him that evening. sA -
u Isl. 4 49, a. -