Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1875-01-01

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then a pattin' of feet running away, bu
it war too dark to see anything, and al
the rest of that night my feelins amt t.
be scribed, nohow."
s'Ah, you were afraid you had killed
one?" said l, pleased at this touch of hu
manity.
''Killed! Why, darn it stranger, d'yi
mean to insult me? No, by lingo; wal
afraid | missed one on 'em: and to have
my own revolver miss at close range, a'tel
being true to me for so many years, was a
little more'n [ could bear!" 1.-The pathos
with which he said this was indiscribablel
{s'I felt pertikler cheap all that night, tell
We. You mout have bought me for cent
any time for mernin. But as soon as it
war light cum out, and thererI seen one
Teller Lynn dead beside the tent door, and
a track of blood all along Whaf t'other had
run off, jest like a streak of molasses
across a buckwheat cake; and says I,
Thank heaven, I've 'em both!' aud the
weight that war took off my mind in that
ere moment-stranger thar ain'tno 'scrib-
ing it.''
| The real fervour of his tone as he utter
ed the last sentence, with all the air Of a
good man whose conscience had just been
relieved Of some overwhelming burden,
cannot be conveyed in words.
| 81 dare say you'd hardly guess now,
stranger, that l fust saw this revolver in
vision; but l did, though, stare as much
as you like; and the way it happened war
jest so: Father had been dead bout a
month, when I cum in late one night from
ixin' a rail fence that one of our oxen had
smashed; and a ter 1 sot by the fire spell
and done a tol'1able stroke of supper, be-
gan to feel leetle drowsy I warn't not
to say asleep, but jest as if you'd spoke to
me sudden, I'd have thought minute
fore 1 answered; when all at once seen
big straw hat on one side and his high
boots and striped shirt sleeves, and his
hands in his pockets THAT war the only
ghost-like think about him, for while he
was alive they war mostly in some one
elses); Cy, my boy [my name is Cyrus
Jehosaphat Flint, stranger, and l amt
shamed on i'll; 'Cy, my boy I've cum
back from the spirit world to tell you
sumthing you'll perhaps be none the worse
for knowin.' didn't leave you very much,
says he, cause you are safe to go long
single handed; whereas them two sisters
and five brothers Of yourn will need some
proppin' up some afore they kin stand
of themselves. Now, you jest listen to me.
Tomorrow mornin' the very fust thing,
you up and jam open the back of the old
cupboard in the corner, jest 'bove the top
shelf, and thar you'll find revolver, the
best you ever fingered; and may heaven
bless it to your use. And now kneel down
and receive my blessin'.' I was jest
gwine to do it, when all at once 1 slipped
off the chair and cum the all-fredst lick
and when | cum to agin thar warn't no.
body than sWal, cuss it.' said l Though
that air language amt Quite proper for a
member of the church,, hope next time
father comes from t'other world, he II con-
trive to do it at a reasonable hour, instead
his own flesh and blood brake his nose in
this ere fashun.' But for all that didn't
forget what he said; and the fust thing
next mornin' up and out into tine kitchen
and out with the back Of the cupboard,
and thar lay the revolver as sure as ever
thing war in the world. And now, stran-
ger, if you don't believe that air story,
here's the identicle revolver, and you can It
go agin that nohow!"
Against such confirmatory evidence it
would have been useless to argue, and [
readily assented, only venturing to inquire
into the mystery Of the singuIarly arranged
studs on the stock of the pistol.
"Well, stranger" returned my compan-
ion, ''you wouldn't guess the trick Of them
studs in hurry, so I'll tell you. Each Of
them air studs ON that revolver stands for
the life of a man that him and me have
cleared off. There's eleven on 'em alto
gether, and I reckon that's a pretty tol'ra-
BILE stroke of work for one man and one
weepun."
Used as I am to extraordinary coinci-
dences, this cool, complacent statement
fairly staggered me for the moment.
"Good HeavensE' 1 gasped, edo you mean
to tell me that you have murdered eleven
mem"
mo, stranger" he replied slowly and
sententiously, ''you have got into the
wrong ferryboat in maxim that ali state
ment. mean to tell yu that I've found it
necessary at different periods of my life to
rub out eleven human critters who mout
otherwise hev offered the same civility to
me, and Gale late you don't call that muir
derin'? Thar's one wantin' yet to COM
plete the dozen, as you see, but" added
he, cheerfully, athat won't be long COM
in, L guess
s'The old cannibal!" said l mentally,
the talks of killing people as if he were
collecting photographs. Pray heaven he
may not take is into his head to add me to
his museum!"
J ssThar's one vantage I've got with this
weepun,'' pursued the Yankee, II kin al
WAYS tell at first sight O. a man whether
I'm gwyne to kill him some day or not. "
Elbows that?" asked |, not without a
secret shudder and a slight anxiety as to
which way the scale had turned with re-
gard to myself.
"Wal, jest this way; whenever I meet a
man that Pm bound to rub out some day,
theshammer o. this revolver's sure to gin a
sorter click-so-jest to show that he
knows his duty 'spectin that individual;
and he never makes mistakes, he DON'T"
The perfect all Of conviction with which
he said this was the reverse of agreeable,
and could not help rejecting: "a pretty
thine if this precious pistol should have