The weekly herald. [volume] (Cleveland, Tenn.) 1876-1888, 1880-01-08
A WILD-GOOSE CHASE.

NOW, yer honor, llst lie quiet and
aisy, keep the gun on full cock and all
ready, but never sthir limb till give
the curlew's cry, and then look out, for
the birds II be Just within shot of We.
Sospoke Shawn, my Herculean henoh.
man, as he laid the last bunch of heather
on my quiyering body, and having sat
ished himself that l was perfectly well
concealed from human sight, he pre-
pared to creep off to the spot where he
had seen the wild-geese alight, in order
to drive the unconscious victims directly
over my head, I nodded as he gave his
instructions, and ere he crept away
promised implicitly to obey his com.
mands. But 1 felt anything but com.
Portable IN my novel position. My bed
was the bare bog-land, oozy and soft
with the soaking of the heavy winter
rains, my covering the half-withered
heather Which Shawn had uprooted
from tho hill side. And the month was
March! Suddenly I heard the faint
whistle of the curlew; two minutes after
saw flock of wild-geese pass almost
directly over my head. fred aimlessly,
and missed.
Then I found that my garments were
completely soaked with bog water, and
that my limbs had sunk several inches
deep in the oozy ground-nay, more,
that they were only prevented from
sinking farther by some obstruction
which was so hard and cold that it made
my bones ache. My first care was to
exhume my half~buried limbs, my next
to unearth the substance which had
prevented me from sinking utterly.
This latter proved to be no easy matter,
but with the help of tho spade which
Shawn had brought with him to prepare
my boggy bed, l at length succeeded in
clearing away good deal of earth, and
discovering that my life-preserver was
deal box some five feet long, stained
almost black with bog water, and fast
ened down with half q dozen rusty
nails.
Exhume and open it l must; and the
wish became stronger within me when
Shawn, who soon returned from his
driving, did his best to dissuade
me from such proceeding.
Sure It's no affair of ours, yer
honor, said Shawn, looking at the same
time 81 profoundly uncomfortable as to
cause my curiosity to increase. May
be it's little potheen that the boys
have buried
But l cut him short, and insisted that
he should assist to exhume and open the
box. Seeing that was determined, he
at length set to work, but he was 80
slow, and evidently so unwilling, that
at length my patience got exhausted. 1
took the spade from his hand, inserted
il in tho crevice upon which Shawn had
been working, and with one powerful
wrench forced off the lid. We both
recoiled in horror-the box contained
corpse
After the first shock OF the discovery
was over, / looked again, and my dismay
Increased tenfold.
w Shawn exclaimed, If it
isn't
Yes, in troth, broke in Shawn;
sure enough it is And we both stared
into the box again.
In order to explain the strange oir-
cumstarce which enabled me to recog
nize this corpse, must chronicle events
which took place several weeks before l
exhumed il.
On the fifteenth day OF February the
annual winter fair was held at Porta-
clare. The anticipation of this day
always created o good deal OF excitement
in the minds OF the peasants in and
around Storport, for 1t was always con-
stituted sort Of gala day; but the an
nouncement OF the fair Of 1877 brought
with 10 whisperings Of woe to many q