Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1871-04-12


commune with each other Yet now they
could only say. ''What does this mean p
They had said it In as many ways a dozen
times, when Harry. by accident, lifted his
eyes to peg in the rough wall. On it hung
something which riveted his gaze with hor-
ror. Yet it was an object quite common
and innocent in itself-only pair of brown
saddle-bags, rather new in appearance, and
With the letters &c. CO. on the side.
Look y he cried. Look, Edward ~
The other. in turn, stood mute for time,
then gave spring toward the peg, tore the
bags down and opened them. Within they
found garments they knew their friend had
worn, an empty belt, and the daguerreotype
of a young lady of whom they had known
him to be very ford
His horse in the stable, his saddle bags
and belt here, the dog bowling on the turf
without-what does it all mean?' cried
Harry again.
And Ned answered, ''We shall soon see, :"
and strobe in to the great room where the
dancing wss goiug on, and up to the bride
groom, standing at the head of Virginia
reel, with his brides hand in his own.
Stop bit. cried Ned, furiously. "We
have question to ask. Whose horse is
that in the stable-the brown one with a
star on the forehead o.
Nine said the farmer turning deadly
white.
And the saddle bags up stairs, marked
C.C.?"
The farmer turned paler
Gentlemen" he said, wait until morn
ing and will explain everything
I'VE choose to learn the truth for our
selves" said the young man fercely.
ou had a mysterious streak OF luck si5
months ago, understand from the old man
there, said Harry Bray.
Not very mysterious, said the farmer.
Il went to the digging and fell in with
nugget, as for the horse l found him and
the saddle bags, too. If you know to whom
they belong, he's welcome to them"
They belong to the man you murdered
for his money, and buried in the ground
yonder, where the dog stands bowling"
cried Harry Bray. I'VE are going TO dig
there. and Heaven help any man who him
ders Us"
dig where you choose, said the farmer.
~ am too well known here to be afraid Of
two nadmcn. Imurder man-Il There
[ am 2 fool to care for such words Dig,
confcund youl Many horse strays in the
woods many a man found one, as well as |.
Come neighbors, set the fddles going, and
let the madmen die"
And the spades sank into the turf, and
the terrified guests gathered around, and
the bride clung TO her husband : arm, anG
the music was dumb, aud the dogs long
melancholy howl filed the air and, at last,
Just as the rising moon flung her yellow
beams upon the new dug earth, Ned War
rem cried in an awful voice, He Is here -
And the two friends lifted from the grave
that which had been man, with long
death grown black hair falling down over his
shoulders.
He had been shot in the head and thro'
the heart, and there was no doubt in either
mind that it was the body OF their lost
friend. The farmer seemed petrifed with
horror. The bride fell into death-like
swoon, the guests fell away from their host.
and looked at hin. askance. The father tore
his hair and pleaded for mercy. But there
vas No mercy in any heart there. The
avengers were all powerful. The great room
adorned for festival and mirth was turned
into a courtroom The women thrust from
it, the men remained. On the raised stand
where the fddlers had been seated, Harry
Bray now took his seat in the character OF
Judge Lynch The jury was named, the
mock trial hurried on, the accused called
upon to answer He plead not guilty. He
denied any knowledge of that : grave lay
near his home. He persisted in the repeti-
ton of the statement that he had found the
horse and the saddle bags, but he admitted
there had been money in the latter.
He stood before them looking very unlike
a murderer. calling on them for justice
calling on God to witness the truth Of his
words; speaking of his young wife and his
old father bidding his neighbors remember
that he had never done them any wrong.
Judge Lynch has no mercy, no compass
sion, Belief in the possibility of false accu-
satiou;aDd this Judge Lynch was an avenger
of blood Then was what the end Of such
a trial generally is, the sentence, the awful
one of death and in less than three hours
from the moment on which they first
saw the bridegroom happy and blithe, stan
ding at the head of gay country dance, his
body daDglei horrible 81 ght 10 look upon,
from the branch of tree that shaddowed
what all believed his victim grave.
When all was over they found the old
father dead in his chair beside the Fireplace,
and found among the women a hopeless
glbbering maniac, whom they would hardly
have known for the rosy checked young
bride
They were revenged, but at what cost
The two men returned to their homes. sad
dened and altered, and get not remorseftl,
for they had but avenged their eomrade, and
this. to them, seemed common justice. The
legal code of border life had been adhered