The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1873-07-18

your name, said Joe, looking up III
quiringly.
Peter Groom is my name, and one |
amt ashamed of it'll be pretty well
known in these parts by this day week,
I'm thinking" and the man smiled
smile not pleasant to see.
Flows that ?" said Joe, anxious to
betray no previous knowledge.
"I'ye come to give evidence in trial
that's coming off in your county town,
answered Groom, motioning toward the
| NIilham shore. Give travelled nigh
| five hundred miles on purpose to do 1t,
and I'd travel five hundred more II twas
needed"
els it the Sawyer trial you mean ?"
asked Joe. carelessly. People have
been saying there amt evidence enough
to make a case. but L 'spose then there's
something new turned up?
| 81 should rather think so something
thatll make casell hold John Sawyer
as tight as his coffin"
Joe clinched his hand on his oar He
was beginning to understand Margy's
hatred for this man, with his open ex-
ultation in the ruin he was going to
work.
I'm sorry for the old man," he said,
after pause, "and so are most folks
about here. Wilson was known for
bully, and if Sawyer really done it,
twas that-that and the drink, for
when he's himself he wouldn't hurt
worm.
"You've no need to tell me what John
Sawyer is, said the other, shortly. 81
knew him before you was born, before
ever he came into these parts"
"Well, " said the boatman, "you've
queer notion of old acquaintance-sak
then, that's ALL
"I'll give him swing for old ac-'
quaintance-sake, if L can," replied
Groom, with scowl
Joe drew quick breath.
Can you do that ?" he said.
"That or lifer. tell you, my man,
I Sa,O 1t dOne.."
You saw Sawyer kill Wilson ?" ex-
claimed Joe, stopping short on his oars.
CT saw him strike the blow that
killed him, and that comes to pretty
nigh the same thing, / take it. "
" But how is it you've kept back all
along?"
"Well, IT'S like this" said Groom,
who appeared to be in a more commu-
NEGATIVE mood than while before.
"The day of the murder-to begin at
the beginning happened to be pass
ing through Milham, and stopped over
q train there to see man L had deal
ings with. He lived little out of the
town, lonesome road, part of the way
across some fields. l did my business,
and started back again alone, as L had
come Halfway, or thereabout, heard
a kind of GUESSING and quarreling in the
next feld-right close to my ear it
sounded, only | couldn't see anything
for the high hedge. Whats up?' thinks
L might as well take peep Twas
an uncommon fine evening; moonlight
you could almost see to read by, and |
knew Sawyer as soon as l set eyes on
him. His face was turned exactly to
me, and ugly enough it looked then.
The next minute L saw him strike out,
and the other man went down like
log"
"And you let him lay?" interrupted
Joe, in excitement "You never called
for help, nor nothing? ?"
"What for? ?" said Groom, carelessly.
CT thought twas just drunken quar-
rel knew what Sawyer was-and l
left 'em to settle it between themselves
| had to look sharp for the next train,
so L hurried back to the hotel, and none
too soon either. / never thought again
about the matter, till the other day /
happened to hear that John Sawyer was
going to be tried for murder, and, talk
ing this way and that found the time
and the gen'ral circumstances agreed
with that evening-so, then, knew /
had seen the thing DONE"
Groom paused a moment, and when
he resumed it was in an abstracted
tone.
"'Twasn't particularly convenient for
me to leave my business just then; if
it'd been anybody else, I'd likely have
left the poor devil to sink or swim as
might be, but John Sawyer ! 1 tell
you," he continued, through his set
teeth, as, catching the boatman's eye,
he appeared suddenly conscious of a
listener, I'D let all I've got go to rack
and ruin for the pleasure of seeing John
Sawyer stand there, a disgraced and con-
vlcted man, and saying to him, Twas
me that did it 7
There was something in Joe Gorton's
breast on which the fierce words and
manner Jared painfully. He was no
preacher, this poor, untaught boatman;
he did not know how to tell the man be-
fore him that his promised revenge was
cruel and cowardly; but yet he felt
that, even setting aside Margy's inter-
ests, there was something in it which
reused all his instincts of resistance
He shook his head as he thought about
it.
"That's feeling 1 can't make out,
he said, half aloud,
Cant you ?" said Groom, shortly,
supposing the remark addressed to him
self. Have you got sweetheart,
young man ?" he added, abruptly, after
a short pause.
GA sweetheart ?" repeated Joe,
starting at the associations connected
with the question, and the man who
put it.
"Well, you've no cause to be shy of
owning it, said Groom, who had noticed
the movement. GA sweetheart, when
she's the right sort, is what no man
need be ashamed of. 1 had one myself
| wbaO II uaa yonr ~ ba oto,D,aJ N