The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1875-02-26


yards, the bushes and trees suddenly
grew sparse, and / saw in advance of me
a stretch Of straight road quarter of a
mile long. knew they would reach
this open space before / could run half
the distance, and thus bring their rifle.
TO bear upon me; and without a seconds
hesitation / sprang out Of the road, on
the lower side, where it was not so steep
as at the point 1 had recently left, and a
few yards from the road 1 found a group
Of large, big rocks, Between two of the
tallest there was crevice three or four
feet wide, and 1 dashed into it to see
where it would take me to. 1t was
somewhat winding, but, at distance Of
fifty yards from the entrance, sudden
ly came upon bare, open space Of
about an acre, nearly level, and entirely
devoid of vegetation. Just then ]
stumbled and fell headlong, and before
1 could rise, I was seized roughly by the
arms by several strong men, while one
exclaimed:
'Now, sir, we've got you!"
won't try to describe the terror Of
that moment,
ga word and you're dead mani
said another, pressing the cold muzzle
of pistol against his temple.
"See if he has any weapons" sug
gested another
"This will fix him." said one, who
still held me to the earth, and some
thing cold touched my wrists "Nov
get up"
To my amazement, 1 found a pair o.
handouts upon my wrists; and as 1 rose
almost paralyzed with the terror of &
moment before, 1 beheld standing
around me, with revolvers in theil
hands, Baird, Wilson and Melhorn.
"Why, Beekmanl" they all exclaimed
in breath.
"Hushl" 1 said in a low tone, ''om
men are near"
And while they took the handouts
from my wrists, hastily explained the
situation.
Creeping back among the rocks, We
found the five rufians standing in the
road, engaged in consultation. They
had lost my trail.
"Counterfeiters, 1 command you tc
surrender ~ shouted Baird, in a tone
of thunder. "Resist, or try to escape,
and shall order the soldiers to riddle
you with carbine bullets. You are sur.
rounded"
With this he stepped boldly out from
among the rocks, while we followed
making as mnch noise as possible. The
counterfeiters looked at one another will
amazement and chagrin.
"Throw down your arms this instnn
or I shall order the cavalry to fire r
'I'm the marshal"
They were completely taken in, ant
meekly dropped their rifles. We ther
advanced and placed handouts upor
them all. They were all very pale.
"It's all up" said one of them in {
husky voice.
Certainly it is, said 1. ''You didnt
knowI ran from you just to get you il
an ambush, did you9'
/ We marched our prisoners back tC
where / had encountered the "farmer,
and there we found the gentleman sit
ting, with his back against a tree, rub
bing his head. He was q little aston
ished at the new state of things, but he
was too weak to try to resist or try tC
escape, and he soon wore ornaments
like those which graced the wrists o.
his companions.
Well, we found the counterfeiters
den deep down in the gorge, where hu
man feet seldom tread. Their number
was six, and we had them all. In theil
rendezvous we found some of the fines
instruments for counterfeiting, ant
much counterfeit money, all of whicl
was seized.
On returning to the Half Way House
we took the landlord into custody; bu
nothing could ever be proved agains
him and he was released. 1 rewarded
the girl with fve-dollar bill.
You williwonder how Baird, Wilson
and Nelhorn, so opportunely happened
to be at the spot where they mistook mi
for counterfeiter. will tell you:
On reaching Richmond they received
my dispatch and instantly started t,
join me in the mountains. They haC
come by way of Raleigh and Ashville
and had left Campbell's tavern earl,
that morning, expecting to meet M
near the Half Way House. They hat
Just left the road to examine the cluste
of rocks, thinking the abode of the
counterfeiters might be there, when
came rushing through, and strangel,
enough the novel idea struck them al
at once that the fugitive was q counter
feiter running away from me.