Litchfield enquirer., 1874-12-10

l; from home. and the journey all along an- til stopped to get my horse shod- Then 1 l thought of the blacksmith and his vil- lainous face. and realized my situation. The villains had dragged me fo1 dead man away from the rosd,-I did not know how far.--and covered me with leaves. I could n.t nore my right arm. but hrnsh- l ed away the leaves fruin my face with my i left. In short time showed them from :; the lower part of my body, aud felt for
 my money-belt It was dangling by oae
 of the strings. which had become eniang- led in a button of my pantalOons. Of course it was empty; and the money I had
 in my pockets. and my watch. were also gone. I did not know how long I had
 lain there; it might have been foF 1oars or days. for what knew. As it was haxy, there was no sun visible to tell me wheth- CT it was morning. noon. or evening. I was quite numb, but presently felt my body all over to find if I was bleeding.
 Much to nay relief was not. but there
 was a great deal of clottsd and dried blood on the back of my head and down the back of my neck There was also a large gash on the top of my head, and the hair was matted over it. Then I felt all over my head, and the skull seemed to be sound So I was convinced that the ter rible blow had received. although it had cut my head dreadfully. had only stun ned me. The loss of blood had in all pro-
 bability saved my ife." l Here Sue laid down her sewing and drew a long aigh. Uncle Ben. putting a fresh Quid of tobacco in his mouth, con ] tinued:-
 s'After while found thatI could rise, though with difficulty, and my wounded arm, when stood up. was not as bad as had supposed. The ball had struck that part of the elbow known as the sefAzy bone, and had glanced Although bfais- ed and sore, I had some use Of it; I could raise and lower it and conld open and close my hand and work my fingers. Of course lameuted the loas of my money. It was all I was all had to pay Shackel- l ford for the land had agreed to buy of him. I also regretted deeply the anxiety and griefy my absence would cause my wife. My immediate care, hows ever, was to know where I was, and to find the road. 'There was small greensward in front of me, probably an old wind-clearing. The cattle of tho few neigh hboring settlers had likely grazed here, and kept down the bushes. Walking forty or fifty yards down hill to the edge of the sward, T came to a precipice of about ten feel, and below it heard the sound of running water. :, Peer ing through the trees also saw bright, sparkling brook. was very thirzty, and clambering down with much difficulty, went to the brook, took 8 hearty drink, and after while drank agaln, and then again.
 By this time realized that it was fau ko -.l~t not know on which side of the road I was, or Low far from it. but felt certain that if could even find the spring where was robbed. it would still be three or four miles to the place where Shackelford in- tended to camp; I concluded, therefore, in my weak condition, to spend the night where was, and to find the road and push on in the morning. 2 T
 '1 found on searching my waistcoat pocket that still had flint and steel, which I generally carried. So gathering handful of furze from birch-tree, and peeling of some of the bark, I struck . light and kindled a fire. had selected spot for this purpose on bare flat rock some yards in extent, immediately below the slight preclpice have just mentioned. On the fiat rock there were several cayi- ties, or shallow holes, might call them, about the size of the top of hogshead, and filled with dry leaves. One of these holes was on the left-hand side of a bed of dry moss, on which I made up my mind to sleep. was very hungry, which considered good sign, and lay down, as @ relief to the uneasiness it gave me- Here bemoaned the loss of my money, instead of feeling grateful to God that that my life had been spared. I turned from side to side great many times. and at last fell asleep I had many wild, wandering dreams, waking occasionally just long enough to find out that I had been dreaming. remember the last one I had very distinctly. I imagined fought with the robbers again; that killed one and drove another off, and followed him at distance through the woods, and saw him go to place very much like the flat rock where was lying, and put money, which supposed he had taken from travellers, into holes like those around me; that when he went away I groped in one of the holes and found the ill-gotten trea- sure.
 ''In my joy I woke up, and was really clutching the leaves in the hole on my left. I withdrew my fingers Was it a string? No. conld not break it. 1t was & chain, and, as I thought, was formed of small links. drew it from the hole, feeling it. Then l put it to my tongue and then be- tween my teeth, and sure enough it was q chain such as ladies and children wear around their necks But what was my astonlshment when something attached to 1t dangled against the back of my hand. I put this also to my tongue and between my teeth. It was circular, flat. and hard. found 1t was 0 coin about the size of A doubloon. ez
 "I was frightened at my dream thus be- coming reality; and then, again. doubt ed whether l was dreaming or really awake. Turning over on my wounded el- bow found was truly awake and still held the chain around my neck, and the coin in my waistcoat pocket I raked the leaves from the holes and heaped them over the smolding coals of my al- most extinguished fire. The flames as- cended and lighted up the woods around me. It occurred to me that If I set fire to the leaves in the holes, there might possi- bly, be bank-potes in them vnd they. would be burned, 30 thrust my hand deeper in the hole on the left of my bed of moss. and grasped hard money. I drew. out handful and jingled the pieces on the flat rock, and rubbed one and then an- othr on my coat-aleeyed until they were. bright, and by the light of of the blazing fire found them all yellow, true gold. guineas and half-eagles. zg
 Then came the thought of my imprud- ence, and the risk had incurred in build- ing the fire. If this was place where highwaymen hid their money, they could not be far of; and the bright light would certainly attract them to the spot. I pull ed the burning leaves away with the limb of tree that had fallen close by, and trampled out the fire. Then removed, the leaves from the hole, and in the dark put all the coin I could lay my hands on into my hat. and clambered up the preci- pice. There I covered my hat with leaves by the side of "a big stone, and. hidine under a bush near by. waited to see the, result of my folly in building such a fire l thought that daylight would never come, 6nt vas apprehensiye the robbers would. While lay under the bush Ihad opport- unity, however, of collecting my thoughts. reasoned thus: It would be n poor