Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-01-25
into the street, and ran at headlong
speed until l reached the center of the

into the street, and ran at headlong
speed until l reached the center of the
town. cid
AS soon as l recovered my breath, 1
sought the bureau of the police. and
told my extraordinary story. From my
strange appearance and excited man
nerl am sure they took me for a mad
man; but nevertheless 1 prevailed on
them to allow a couple of gcnsdarmes
to accompany me back to the hotel.
Yet brief as had been the time thus
taken up, it had been sufficient to al
low the criminals to escape. The ex-
animation of the premises, however,
quickly revealed the internal machinery
to which L had SO nearly fallen a VIC
tim. The chamber / had occupied was
built e what had formerly been q
coach-house, but which was now used
as a lumber-shed. Between the ceiling
of this place and the floor of the room
was a loft about three feet high, also APP
parently filled with lumber, but in re-
atty it was only the entrance that was
stopped up, the rest Of the place was
perfectly clear, and it was from here
the machinery was worked. The pal
let OF my bedstead was simply a wood
en- plank secured to the framework
only in the center, where it was made
to revolve to any angle by mean of an
iron rod that acted as an axis. 1t was
supported at either end by two iron legs
attached to the floor but not to the
plank; that portion of the flooring that
was beneath the upper half of the bed
stead could be sunk like a stage trap
into the loft, so as to admit of the pallet
being raised from the horizontal to the
perpendicular; cords %cunningly reefed
into the quilt were passed through the
flooring into the loft and thence into
the coach-house below, and worked by
small windlasses, which enabled the
operator to secure the victim to the
bed. The rush of blood caused by the
head hanging downward, more especi-
ally q man had been partaking of q
drugged drink, was almost certain to
produce apopleXy, more especially as
the curtains were so arranged that they
closely EMBODIED the victims head and
rendered breathing almost impossible.
Some few months afterward the man
vas arrested. In the meantime it was
discovered that he had been the land
lord of ala Croix dor" at La Tour-du-
Pin at the time of the travellers mysteri-
GUS death. He afterward made a full
confession of his crimes; at least, he
owned to having committed SIX murders
in the l have described, and
would probably have committed as
many more but for my miraculous es-
cape. Without some such chance, de-
lection was almost impossible; there
was no trace Of blood, or poison, no
mark of violence, and nothing to sug-
gest the mode by which the crime had
been committed. After the suspicious
aroused ut La Tour-du-Pin, however, he
had thought it better for the future tc
make away with the bodies of his vic.
Tins; four nearly consumed by quick.
lime were found in the garden of the
Norman Hotel. But an evil reputation
had begun to cling about the house, the
town's-people avoided it and traveller:
fought shy Of it. which Icould very wei
understand, as only the eKceptiona
weather would have induced me to en-
ter its gloomy portals.
I may remark, in conclusion, that i
was only by accident l escaped ex
changing asphyxia for strangulation
In my sleep l had pushed down the bee
clothes; otherwise the cord which wa
intended to secure my feet would hav,
been cross my throat instead of across
my chest.-H. Barton Baker, IN Belgra
ri0 AnnudI.