The New Bloomfield, Pa. times. (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1877-188?, 1881-04-05
William again started and trembled.

nowhere to be found. Fur, you see, the
fellow he'd tried TO give him into custody,
and he'd made oath thet ho was 'acoes-
sorry before the fact to murder, and
meant to hev him hang, even II he he'd
to hang long side Of him on the same
gibbet. P'raps II was as well thet he
didn't implicate himself jist then or he
might hev hanged himself and the lover
would never hev bin found and hanged
which would hev bin condemned
insufferable pity. Well, the lover escap-
ed, and must hev changed his name and
appearance fur he has never bin found,
and it's thought he has gone to furrin'
parts. But this 'ere newspaper goes on
to say-all this wot Pm tellin' you hap
pened four years ago-to say thet
month ago jlst, the fellow wot drownded
the girl dies, and before he dies he makes
confession in which he tells the whole
story of the crime, e,-tells how he was
induced to do the job, and how the poor
girl plead and struggled fur life, and
how every night of his life since thet
day he dreamt of going through the
horrid business of drownding thet girl,
and
A wild peal of laughter came from the
barroom followed by striking set of
profane remarks which were suddenly
chopped off by closing door. The
crowd soon investigated the cause of the
disturbance while the Colonel temporar-
lily suspended his remarks. 1t was not
difficult to discover. Some wag had
secretly put drop of croton oil in the
barkeeper's grog and that worthy young
gentleman's nimble and expeditions
movements as he departed produced
scene which was extremely enlivening,
and which even the name of the hotel,
mild though it was, tended rather to in
tensify than calm.
"Now that's gentle influence amt
itp" sarcastically observed citizen
with irony on his lips and red patch
on his trousers
But William knew nothing of what
had happened. He stood there rooted
to the spot unable to stir. He heard
nothing save confused sounds, saw moth
ing but the red bearded face of the
Colonel on whom his eyes were bent as
If fascinated. When the Colonel again
took up the thread of his narrative it
seemed to him as though an inexorable
fate was weaving sure web in which
to entangle his old friend and forging q
thunderbolt to strike him dead. The
question, can it be Ashleigh wearily
dinned in his brain, and the answer
came, fiendlike, into his ears, Yes, 1t is
Ashleigh The words of the Colonel
mingled confusedly with the sounds in
the street, and seemed to come from afar
as he spoke.
{" In thet confession as l was tellin'
about" blandly pursued the Colonel,
"the fellow describes this ere lover. He
says thet Edwin Parker was hand
some"
Parker 7"
ga handsome man of heavy build and
fine figure; a young man of p'raps
twenty.fv pale faced, noble bearin'
and brown curly haired"
" Brown You mean black 7"
Brown curly haired smooth faced
and havin' fine black eyes which spark
led in excitement like Turks"
Perhaps by reason of his interruption
the Colonel paused here with his keen
eye bent upon William. He went on,
addressing his words to him and looking
him straight in the eye.
"The sing'larist thing is thet the
fellow remembers jist where he hit
Parker with thet three cornered slung
shot. He describes the spot exactly. II
is on the left temple jist back two inches
from the frontal bone of the forehead
and an inch and half above and for
ward of the ear. The wound made wai
three cornered and measured halfinct
along each side of the cut. 1t is lik'
so,' and the Colonel illustrated 1t by {
diagram on the corner of the pape
rapidly drawn with lead pencil, Sane
thet wound ought to be found now-jis
about right here"-(walking swiftly ul
to William, striking off his hat an,
placing his long bony forefinger on th
supposed spot on his head )-"as live
almost expected to find thet mark OF
your head, young man, you looked 81
scared. You've bin away good Will
and might hev been the man. Mebb
you know the man? amt frightened
you, hev I, ehY Why, thet mark u
find thet man wherever he may hide il
the world, and shall see him hange'
yet, demme If shan't What? Ge