The silver state. [volume] (Unionville, Nev.) 1870-1903, 1880-08-10

every sign Of hxyiDg starved toheath
The man walked up to the house,
opened the door, and looked in. Not
an article OF household furniture had
been removed, but the dust lay heavy
on everything. 1t was very suspicious.
The man proceeded to Cherryville and
told his story A. M. York, the brother
of the missing man was there. To his
suspicious and eager mind the sudden
and strange flight of the Bender family
was revelation. He had found the
first clue to his lost brother. He d.
vulged his suspicious, and a band of
men accompanied him to the Bender
farm, The front room OF the house was
carefully searched, every crack aud
crevice being minutely looked into and
subjected to the application of rods and
levers to see if the floor was either hol-
low or loose. Nothing came of it. No
blood spots appeared. The floor was
solid The walls were solid. Next the
party searched the back room. The
beds were removed. In their fight
the Benders had
LEFT EVERYTHING UNTOUCHED.
a slight depression was noticed in
The floor, which, upon closer examina-
tion, revealed trap,doer. This was
Immediately lifted up and in the gloom
n pit outlined itself forbidding, cavern
Gus, unknown. Lights were procured
and sorae of the men descended. They
found themselves in an abyss shaped
like a well, six feet deep and five feet
in diameter. Here and there little
damp places could be seen, as if water
had come up from the bottom or been
poured down from above. They CROPPED
around over these splotches and held
handful to the Light. The ooze smeared
itself over their palms and dribbled
through their fingers. 1t was blood.
thick, fetid, clammy, sticking blood.
Every awful suspicion was now raal-
lied. The murderers had fled, leaving
behind damning evidence of their hide
Gus guilt. But where were the bodies
of the victims? For an hour the party
of excited people traversed the lonely
garden in the rear of that human
slaughter-pen, prodding the earth with
a long iron rod All at once the iron
seemed to strike f1eshy matter. In a
moments time dozen eager spades
had resurrected from it's shallow grave
the putrid carcass of human being,
The body had been buried face down.
They tnrned it over to the sunlight. A
cry of terror went up from the crowd.
TT WAS YoRK's CORPSE.
Although far advanced in the stage
of decomposition, the features were
plainly recognizable. How the mur-
derous deed had been done was speed
lily and easily learned. A terrible blow
on the back Of the head had crushed
the skull down and in upon the brain,
and the throat had been cut from ear
TO car.
The work Of discovery went on. One
after another were laid bare the graves
of ten murdered people. Most of the
bodies were identified, and the roster
of recognized victims was as follows:
W. III. York, George w. Longcar and
daughter, L. G.. Brown, w. f. Nc
Crotty, Henry +. Mckenzie, Peter
Boyle and Jchn Bogert. From evi-.
dences at hand it appeared that the
modus operand at the killing of vic.
tim was as follows: Attracted to the
Bender mansion by the conspicuously
displayed grocery sign, q stranger was
inveigled Into the death trap, and in
vited to glass OF wine or something to
eat. AS he sat at the teble in the back
room, one OF his treacherous hosts
smote him with hammer, crushing in
his skull and killing him instantly.
But to insure death his throat was
ripped from ear to ear, and he was hur-
riedly dropped through the trap-door
into the
BLOODY CAVERN BENEATH.
In the dead of night the body was
removed to the garden and buried.