Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1872-04-25
in which their business had been

managed, readily yielded to the sug-
gestion of his partner to delay his
visit home, devote the winter to active
operations, and go down in the spring
with furs. All went well until mid
winter, when the brother received a
letter from his home that nearly
crazed him. The letter was from his
mother, and gave a long and circum-
stantial account of the seduction and
ruin Of his beloved Nina BY his part
ner. The girl had confessed every
thing, and told how he had seduced
her while bringing her home down
the Missouri and then abandoned her.
The poor girl, unable to bear her
shame, had become q maniac and
soon would be mother. The first
impulse Of the brother on reading
this letter was to seek out at once
and kill the villain that had ruined
his family, but ;he thought the mo-
mentary punishment inflicted by a
ball was not enough for such a scoun-
drel, and SO devised plan of revenge
that no Indian could have outdone
for cruelty. Keeping the receipt Of
his letter a profound secret, he went
on with his business as usual, and
every. day met his partner ON the
same terms of friendly intimacy as
formerly. When the skins were
packed and all in readiness to 60
down the river, the brother went to
Fort Benton and there had executed
.a,will, leaving the name of the person
who made it blank, after. which he
returned to his camp on Jefferson
Fork He then represented that on
the Platte great profits were to be
made. in the fur trade. and proposed
to his partner that instead Of going
down the Missouri they should 60
overland to Fort Kearney. and meet
the boats at the mouth of the Platte
on the Missouri. The inducement
was that if they found all is repre-
scented they would establish branch
of their business at Fort Laramie,
and thus increase their profits. The
partner readily assented to proposals
SO manifestly for the benefit Of both,
and alone they sat out, taking only a
pack mule to carry the -four and
bacon to be used on their journey.
They .,raveled ior many days, and
finally came to the Platte, down
WHICH. they followed the overland
trail TO Benard's Ranch. Under some
pretense or other, the brother induced
his partner to accompany him into
the lonely pass, where, disarming
him, he securely tied him hand and
foot, and bound hirnstothe rock. ..At
first the partner thought It was some
cruel joke, but when the brother pro-
duced the letter and read it. the poor
man knew that his time had come.
He confessed all and asked to be
shot; but the brother had another |
fate in store for his victim. Coolly
encamring by the rock, he sat down
TO see his partner starve to death.
On the third day the ill-fated man
signed the deed bequeathing all his
property to the injured girl. and the
brother attached a fictitious name as
witness of the instrument, by the
forms of which he was made executor
of his partners estate. He then
wrote letters saying he had fallen very
i'll with fever on the plains, and if
he did not recover tlrese letters would
be delivered by his beloved partner.
All this the infuriated brother COM
PEELED the poor man to do, and then
quietly awaited the end. Day by
day the partner grew weaker, and
brother gloated over his misery, often
reading to him the letter from his
mother.
The poor man promised to marry
the girl and make all the reparation
in his power to the family, but the
brother was deaf to- eptreahes. At
last the partner-dwindled to skele-
ton-died, and the brother, after
burying his victims ematiated corpse
in the sand, resumed his journey to
st. Louis. There ,,.e gave out that
his partner had died. while on his
way through the Rocky Mountains,
and in proof of his assertion delivered
The letters. The will was also proved,
and the girl became the dead mans
heir. Two years afterward the
brother was shot by Indians, and be-
fore he died be confessed what lie had
done. Some hunters visited the place
and dug up the skeleton, around the
neck of which was still the chain by,
which the poor man, when living, had
been fastened to the fatal rock. The
spot is. still pointed out to travellers,
and the tale told Of how the brother
day after day ate his meals in the
presence of his wretched prisoner,
bnt would not give him so much as q