The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1884-11-01

| to I'LL who he was or where he come
from, an the old man just dug q hole
and put him in it-and said nuthin'.
Deed there wasn't no liberties in
them days to tell it to.
MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE.
But now comes the CIRCUS part
of t.. It was four months afOre he
! went there again-.-,hat is the old
man---and one day when we made
for the island, and KEEP pullin' an
pullin, .-dash'd if it wasn't gone
and it hadn't never been seen since.
The old man kept lookin' 'roun' for
it, but after he'd pulled half a mile
below where he knew it a he
lust lit out for home. He didn't say
nuthin,' though, the 0lu man didn't,
but be sendr y young Canadian down
there the next day on an errand-- to
kind of prove if it was so. The old
nla warn't no hand at drinkin', but
| he thought it might be q dream, or
what you call a ~visiOn-see? Well,
| the Canadian come back near skairt
to death, and swOre there wasn't no
island IT, ere any moe, and then the
old man knew it was gone sure
enough"
And did not anybody else notice
its disappearance?
o, yes, it made q little talk roun'
for q while. but among a thousand
| islands one more or less don't count
and isn't mifsed. There was truth
in this remark, certainly. The beau.
tiful swarm of Islands, large and
small, that are such an attraction to
the traveller who sails down the st.
Lawrence, lie green and beautiful on
the splendid river, and the wayward
one of their company that took to
flight so mysteriously and was never
heard of more is forgotten.
A STRANGE VISITOR.
It Is forgotten by all but one sad
eyed woman--nearly ninety years OF
age she is now--.who lives alone in q
little cabin situated only a few miles
from the spot where the water now
flows over the site of Lost Island.
The tourist, who had listened to the
story of the guide with q good deal OF
interest, was attracted to the spot
during his stay at AL xandria Bay
by a species of fascination, Daily he
pulled his boat overt the same fishing
ground, and while watching his line
would muse on the mysterious occur
ence whose narration had 80 attracted
him. One day while thus engaged, | y
was surprised by the appearance
from amid the many windings
among the islands of an old woman,
bent and decrepid, who vas slowly
padding a canoe toward him. She
was scantily clad, neatly. Her gray
hair flOated loosely under an old
cloth car; her face was tanned by
exposure to the elements and scanned
by deep burrows, where sorrow and
privataion had left their traces. She
drew near to the young fisherman
and stopped padding. In q brief
conversation which followed he
learned that she had noticed his fire.
quent visits to this spot, which was
hallowed to her by an extraordinary
and terrible memory. As he dis
closed the story he bad heard and ex-
pressed q deep interest in it, the old
woman invited him to her hut, and
on their arriving, after many turns
and twists about the islands, he lam
ded. and she not only gave him a
circumstantial history of q terrible
crime, but substabtiated much of it
by old letters in her possession and
other documentary evidence.
THE SECRET OF LOST ISLAND
Her story amounted to this. In
the summer of 1920 she had been
married in the village of Ogdens-
burg to a young soldier, whom rhe
bad met there a year before and who.
as she learned later, had deserted
from the army. Immediately after
the marriage he had taken q bateau,
stored 1t with provisions aud ammu-
milton, add fled with his bride to the
island on which she still lived.
Here they remained, secure and
happy, for two years, living by hum
ting and fishing But at the end OF
that time be had required more am
munition, and had lett her, taking
their bateau, and gone to the main
land for it and had not returned.
Two weeks after his departure a
strange man had arrived at the is
land in q boat and announced that
her husband was sick at Ogdedsburg
and Gisirtd her presence. Taking
her year-old infant in her arms. she
had at once bastented to accompany
the stranger to JOIN her sick husband
He was, ste said, a tall, powerful
man, with a heavy black beard. and
was very kind and gentle with her,
nothing occuriDgt t, Gus her sus-
picions until they reached the island
which was nc longer in existence.
There was q hut on the island, and
Der companion expressed a wish to
stop there ard get some water from
q spring which was near it. AS she
vel thirsty she had stepped ashore
with him and accompanied him to
find the spring, when he seized her
and attempted to drag her to the hut.
She resisted, when be told her that
her husband had been captured by
soldiers, court-martislled and shot
The young woman was armed with
pistol, and, believing the story to
be a lie and in self protet ton, she
drew it and shot him through the
head, killing him instantly. Then
she got into his boat with her baby,
and made what way she could to
only to find that the
had told the truth, and that
her husband had been actually tried
by drum-head court-ma rtial, SEN
enced to be shot, and was so ex-
ecuted.
WIDOWED AND CHILDLEss MANIAC
The shock of such accumulated
drove the young woman
For weeks she Was out OF