The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1879-11-07

immOvable features BETRAYED no emo
ton, nor vOuchsafed anv clue to the mvs-
terry that enshTouded the coffin outcast
and himself.
The evening of the funeral The Wolf
called on me at my rooms. Seating him
sell, without preface he said
AS man of sense an no coward.
yer Elm look at brave mans agony in
/ the right way. The past I've hidden
Tor twenty years, fur | amt the kind to
carry my heart on my sleeve for DAVIS Ia
peck at. But thar's a feeling as tbouqb
I'd choke il l didn't talk to some one.
The woman buried to-day war my wife.
Here's some letters the wimin folks
found on her an give to me. Yer look
them over while L chin, fur I'm slow on
the read. We war married in the
States when she war sixteen an; | inst
come of age. a bit after it l got the
gold fever an went to Californy. In a
! couple of years l made quite a pile. an
went home fur her. She war changed.
an 1t warn't long before / heard the
stories, and found the truth. that she
had gone wrong. He war a fiue-haired
chap who had come INTO town while
war away. | war a likely young feller
| then- but the blow turned me into a
devil. | went for him, but he heard of
It and slid out fur Californy. follered.
an tur twenty years we bin hunting
Tor him all over this coast. 4 voice of
I nell has urged me on, an I've killed
/ men that the caste of blood might keen
fierce my hope of revenge. I've never
found him. During these years I've
heard of her once in a while. an how
she war drinking an going to the dogs.
Il alluS meant to see her when I'd set
tied with him. His name war Bill Arm
strong"
The letters taken from the dead wo-
man, which l had been looking over.
we've mostly answers to inquiries regard
/ ing the whereabouts of her husband. .-
An unfinished letter of her own to some
friend in the East, and dated a few days
previous TO her death, showed that to
this Door, lost creature, with the grasp
OF death upon her, there had come back
( to her the glory Of her first and only
pure love, and the uncomfortable desire
7 to die at his feet, freed from the burden
of his curse. Strangely enough. another
letter gave information of Bill Arm
strong. and stated that he was living at
Boise City, in Idaho. These two / read
to the desperate man who sat before me.
his burning eyes cleaning with pain
and his lips mute with anguish. When
l ceased, he grasped my hand with,
. THANK yer. stranger and left the
room. / watched him mount his horse
and ride out into the black night. The
Wolf was again on the trail.
The circumstance i have related
were yiYidly recalled to mind during
NY present visit to Battle Mountain by
casually OyeThearing an account of
fatal shooting affair between Bill Arm
strong, a mining spscu!atoT. and ice
the Wolf. at Boise City IN 1878. The
details Of the rencOntre I give ia the
words o. the narrator, who was an eye
witness
Joe met Armstrong on the street.
and with the single exclamation. L IN
Aggie's husband = pulled and fired.
From some UEGcCOuutabic reason Ie
missed. Armstrong ret turncd the fire.
shooting Joe plumb through the heart
II" fell on one knee, and. for a second
swayed like a reed before the Storm
Grand i'm his physical strength. in his
power of hate. he recovered himself.
As from his aShen lips rang out the Old
cry, It's fourteen inches between nay
eyes, and ! smell like a wolf = he fired.
. killing Armstrong instantly, and fell
upon his face dead. "
ThoughtfUily to-day I sought the pau
peTs' field. and stood before the rude
pine headbuard which bore the name of
her whose weakness had destroyed
three lives. 1t was almost hidden by
. ClumpS Of Sage-brush. which. Hnsight'y
. and pallid green. were fitting grOwths of
umhallowed ground.
The old story Of shame and sorrow.
common in all the epochs of the world
as the grains of sand that dTifted over her
lonely, unCared-foT grave. \ ct rarely is
the Tecompense for sin 50 terribly mtted
out as in the. tragic end and wayward,
bitter lives of Joe and Aggie Garland.