The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1879-12-19
THE MARK OF THE CRUFCH.
4 STORY OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL EvI-
DENCE,

Old Adam Hardburn was always ac-
counted very eccentric, but when he
adopted Malone's boy, people thought
that his eccentricity amounted to mad
ness. The MalOnes were Il bad lot, and
this boy was not, as far as any one knew,
better than any other of the family
Moreover he had fallen from tree
which lie was robbing of peaches in his
youth, and crippled himself so that he
must always walk With a crutch. What
did old Adam wan: OF him ? But Adam
cared nothing for criticism he knew
that DO one ever pleased all the world
yet. and when his friends prophesied
that he would be sorry, he laughed in
their faces. Old Malone was dead, two
of the boys were in jail, one gone away
upon voyage. He found Dan desert
ed in the miserable hut they had inhab-
tied. fTieGdlesS, with no one TO help him
to such work as he could do. and he had
taken him home.
There could not be better boy.''
old Adam said and after Dan had been
with him two years he was still so much
OF this opinion that he made Will III his
favor. Dan Malone, the old ruflian's
lame boy, had come to be the prospect
i've heir OF the largest estate in the place.
d
grew refined in manner, learned rapidly;
but even when he had come to be one
aud-twenty, people were still prejudiced
against him. Adams venture might
turn out well, but they doubted it.
At last something happened that
seemed to prove that they were all right.
Old Adam was very fond of fishing
Sometimes he spent long days beside
certain trout stream, and often his boy,
as he called Dan, was with him but
one summer day Dan was not we'll and
Adam went out alone. The hired man
was chOpping in another direction, and
the old woman who washed and cooked
kept to her kitchen. But about eight
O'Clock that evening, Dan, very pale,
and with strange looks in his eyes, came
into a neighbor's house.
Il came because | wanted help he
said. Mr.. HardbUrn went away to
fish this morning. | was sick. l grow
giddy when l try to stand. | can't go
after him, and he's not home yet. |
wanted Simon to go, but he says his
master is old enough to take care of
( himself, and has probably gone some
{ where to supper. But that IS not like
Mr. IIardburn besides, he had on his
/ fishing hat and a linen jacket. | wish
some one would do what ! am unable to
do. I'm alarmed-yery much alarmed. -
The neighbOrs were kind. The men
started out for the trout stream, and the
women cOmforted Dan, telling him that
| good news would soon come that 1t was
too cool for sunStrOke, and that the
/ stream was too shallow to be dangerous.
But the young man sat paling and shiv-
ering, partly with illness and partly
. with anxiety, until news came. 1t was
l,a Tr n m
had been found dead, shot through the
head. \ pistol lay near him, and his
pockets were turned inside out, and his
I watch was gone.
When Dan heard the news he tainted
away. and for awhile every one SYM
pathiZed with him. But soon the tide
turned
Detectives came down from the city
and made explorations and Inquiries
The watch was found in a hollow tree
and along the soft wOOdpath were very
peculiar footsteps. They traced then
from the woods to the gate of the ole
mans home, the mark of a shoe, anC
where the other shoe print should nave
been, puncture. Some one has beer
here who walked with a crutch, was The
conclusion.
In the whole village there was but
one who used a crutch-young Dan Ma
lone The clouds Of suspicion began tC
gather Dan declared that he had been
III i'll bed all Gay; but Simon, the man
knew nothing of Dams whereabout'
from the time he left home until he re
. turned. and Betty only knew he had no
come to dinner. The pistol with which
: Nh HaTdbur had been murdered wa
one always kept III his own dining-r0om
And finally Dan, and 10 other, had ~
; object to attain by the old mans death
Poor Dan was arrested, and his agOn.
was very great
what do yOu think of me ?" h
cried. lis money anything in compari
son with a friend such as | have lost?
I had all | wanted. He was like fathe
j to me- How can you think L woul
j harm n hair of his dear head -
But say what he would, no one beliey
ed him. They had no proof that he ha
been i'll in bed no proof that he ha
: not been to the woods indeed, theT
r were the marks of his crutch, and tina
I the watch had been hidden, not carrie
off was the proof that no thief had bee
the murderer. So Dan Malone lay j
prison for awhile, and was at last bro
= to trial. The facts which the jury ha
d to consider were these:
-e No man had seen Dan after NJ
Hardburn left home. a pistol whiC
- was in the house had been used to shO
s. him with Dan declared that he III
not crossed the threshold; vet the