The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1880-11-25
cried, hearsely. Do it, or I'll throttle

"Iry to bear up. Pat,' muttered,
holding him off, and trying to soothe
him. I'd sooner take stretch in Jail
myself than break the news to. you.
Both Jenny and your child are dead, Pat
.Dead2' he yelled-.dead! deadp'
The two last words came out in hor-
rifed, bewildered gasps, and he stagger-
ed to his feet, back against the wall, as
white as a ghost.
eyes, explained hurriedly. 81 was
out of town the whole winter, and I only
learned the particulars day or two ago.
The gang, IN obedience to the majors or
degs, first turned her into the street, and
then hunted her from place to place so
that she could not procure employment.
And then, while he stood there gasping
and glaring at me, I gave him the whole
sad and bitter story, much as you lad it,
but more IN detail.
sob, the fends! the demons!' he at
last moaned, beginning to wiring his
hands, but without tear upon his white,
horror-wrinkled face. "And you, Near
die even you did not lift hand to save
her!"
"By heaven! Harnden,' . cried, chad
been in the city and known that your
wife was in trouble orin want, I'd have
lost my arm at the shoulder blade rather
than let her perish. It was no fault of
mine''
ooh, it matters not words-words are
nothing now,n cried the poor, bereaved
fellow, suddenly towering before me with
blazing eyes and cloudy brows, like an
avenger of old. SAT last am alone all
alone in the world, with every hope, ev-
cry tender feeling blasted. They have
killed my wife, Mac-my own Jenny,
who was all the world to me-and nv
little child who was as innocent as the
angels in heaven. Oh, had they no mer-
cy? Gould they not have spared them
and let me suffer? Listen to me, Mac,
and to what I am about to swear solemn
ly before Heaven. I will Save life tor
life, hunting for hunting, sleuth hound
ing for sleuth bounding so may the God
of justice and Of vengeance help me in
my hour of bitter need I swear, by all
that IS sacred, to live but for one object
to tear the mask of mystery from the ma
jor's face, and to hunt him of the face of
earth And not him alone, but of them,
all, all, all Not villain shall escape,
male or female. Every one of the &C
cursed Silver Gang-every mothers thief
of tnem-shall feel a thief's power,
thief's vengeance! I constitute myself
their Nemesis, to hunt and hound them
own forevermore?'
Harnden fairly shrieked forth those
wild, threatening words, after which he
staggered into the chair again, breath
ing SO hard and looking so white that I
fastened into the adjoining saloon to
procure him some refreshments, fearing
that he would faint. But when I re-
turned he had partly recovered, and
gently but firmly refused glass of stimu-
liant profered him, the former in
diligence IN which had not little to do
with his swift descent amid crime and
sin. VI
I may conclude my sketch by saying
that he has never touched drop Of
liquor since, and that he fulfilled the re-
quirements of his terrible oath, wild and
futile as they seemed at the moment of
their utterance, to the very letter.
Gle turned detective, then, and hunt
ed down the members of the gang, one.
by one?"
eyes, or in pairs or groups" replied
my narrator. "Of course, it was some
time, owing to his antecedents, before he
could be entrusted with regular detective
work. But it was not long before he
made himself equally admired by the
force and feared by the thieves, in an
auxiliary capacity, and when he was re-
gularly commissioned as detective. the
cold bleoded, patient,relentless and syste-
matte tenacity and persistence with
which he began to hunt down, entrap,
inveigle and pick off the members of that
gang, was caution"
And the major?''
''Why, he was the fourth or fifth that
Harnden disposed of, by a strange and
exciting strategem, an account Of which
would make capital sensational story
IN itself. His arrest, unmasking and
exposure was one Of the newspaper hits
OF three years ago. He turned out to be
a big gun named Monteith, who, while
planning robberies in secret for long
time had been living at the best hotels,
which probably afforded him ample op-
portunlties for concocting the long series
of burglaries which he planned for his
ouOoANAhAICo " CACCutCs hG Was SGQE
up for twenty years, chiefly upon Harm
den's testimony, and died miserably In
prison, of pneumonia. contracted by the
quarries, only short time ago.
"And the two thieves convicted the
other day were, then, the last of these
banded criminals?'
ayes; Harnden has only been five
years in pursuing the gang, often at the
eminent risk OF his life, and numerous
and powerful as they were, not one of
them remains to-day to curse our COM
munity. Either dead, fugitive, or with
in prison walls, they have all disappear
ed, thanks to the piteous event that trans
formed a thief into an honest man, and
brought about the making of the ode
tective's Oath"
Watch the Children's Feet.
LIFELONG Discomfort and sud1 don 5ao+as