Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1873-08-01

left 'em to settle it between themselves,
| had to look sharp for the next train,
so | hurried back to the hotel, and
none too soon either. | Inever thought
again about the matter, till the other
day / happened to hear that John Saw
yer was going to be tried for murder,
and, talking this way and that, I found
the time and the general circumstances
agreed with that evening-so, then, ]
knew [ had seen the thing done"
Groom paused 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! I 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 convicted man, and saying to him,
''Twas me that did itp"
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
before 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 can't make out. y
he said, half aloud.
'Can't you?" said Groom, shortly,
supposing the remark addressed to
himself. "Have you got a sweetheart
young man" he added, abruptly, after
short pause.
GA sweetheart?" repeated Joe, start
ing at the associations connected with
the question, and the man who put it
"Well, you have 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 nc
man need be ashamed of. I had one
myself when was your age"-he
stopped a moment-'1 don't 'spose
you'd often see her like, l never did
There was a girl up at that place, that
tavern there, had a kind of look of hel
about the eyes and forehead, but moth
ing to compare had friend, too
well, it amt much of story" Groom
broke off with dry laugh, ''and don't
hardly know why I tell it at all, only
maybe, it'll help you to make out what
seems to puzzle you. The long and
the short of it is, that my friend
mind that, youngster! my friend cheat
ed me out of my sweetheart. I amt
much to look at, [ know, never was,
but [ could care for woman Just as
much as if I'd been six foot high, and
fresh as rose, and I'd take my oath
she cared for me too, till he come be-
tween us with false tongue enough
to turn any girls head. Well, he
come off first best; she left me and
went away with him. L swore then,
boy" said Groom, looking darkly in
his listeners face, ''that, if ever my
day come, I'd be even with John Saw
yer; never thought 'twould, but it
has, and do you think I'll let my
chance slip now? No" and the man
brought down his fist with a force that
shook the boat side.
"That was hard lines, sure enough, :"
said Joe thoughtfully, "but, Mr.. Groom,
you was speaking just now of girl up
at the tavern there? She's my sweet
heart, and," added the boatman slow
ly, "she's Sawyer's girl, his only child
''Now exclaimed Groom, evidently
moved by the intelligence. "Hetty's
child" he muttered to himself, ''Het-
ty's child"
sYes," said Joe, eagerly, "don't for
get whose child she is, and that you'll
make her suffer along with the old
man."
"Ah," said Groom, ''that's all very
we'll, but | don't forget neither whose
child she is on the other side. No!
Pm sorry for the girl, and for you,
youngster, since you've an interest in
her, but I'd have my pay out of John
Sawyer now, if [ was to die for it,
Joe's grasp frightened convulsively
on his oar. Was the man crazy, thus
to make boast of the misery he would
cause before one whose advantage and
opportunity it alike was to insure his
silence? who had him almost as com
pletely at his mercy here on this unfa-