The Opelousas courier., 1886-08-14

was in the room, and she looked at me
in a queer, strange way as / upset the
arrangements she had perfected. Bender
did not look into the room for two or
three minutes, and then retired without
| speaking. A minute later he passed
around the house and entered the kitchen
| by the back door. While / could not
see him, / heard him and the woman
whispering together, and I caught the
words as spoken by her:
"I tell you he did it himselfp
st could not catch a word from him,
and directly he went out and she came
in. with the rest of the eatables. Hel
| face was flushed and her manner very
nervous. She put on a plate of bread
and a platter of meat, and then went
out for the coffee. AS she set the cup
and saucer on the board, she partly up
set the cup and spilled half the contents
on the table.
"tExcuse me-I'm sorry, she said, as
l showed back to keep the hot liquid
from dripping on my legs.
"tNever mind-no harm done,' I re-
piled.
1T was so careless of me. You had
better change your seat to the end while
I sop it up
"'Oh, don't mind. I'm not hungry
and shall eat but a few mouthfuls any
way. l forgot to tell you that I pre-
ferred water to Coffee
"'But-you-you'-
tim all right
She gave me one of the qussxest looks
I ever got, first flushing up and then
turning pale. Splitting that coffee was
a put-up job to get my back to the
kitchen door. / suspected it then; a
few months later | had plenty Of horri-
BILE proofs. Before the meal was finished
| old Bender looked in from the kitchen
door and drew back, and when I showed
away and entered the Office he was not
there and did not show up for five min
utes. When I went to dinner a double
barrelled shotgun stood in a corner of
| the office. When | came out it was
| gone. The old man came in after a
while, and it was easy to see that he had
to force himself to converse. I paid him
for the meal and was ready to go. It
was a lonely road I had to travel, with
no other house for miles, and it sudden
" struck me that the younger man had
gone on to lie in ambush and shoot me
in case I escaped assassination at the
house. For a minute or two [ quite lost
my sand, and you can judge what a re-
lief it was to me to see a team drive up
with three men in the vehicle and room
for one more. They stopped to water
the horses and chat a few moments, and
readily gave me q lift or my way. I
did not impart my suspicious to them,
and it was not until the horrible stories
came out that / felt sure in my mind
what a close call / had had.
sDo | know what became of old Ben,
der and his family2 You remember that
they fled the country, or that the paper,
SO reported, and for months we used to
hear from one locality and another of the
fugitives being seen or captured. /
have reason to believe they never got out
of the State, nor yet a hundred miles
from that lone tavern on the prairies
with its horrible cellar underneath and its
graveyard in the rear. Bands of men
were riding in this or that direction,
bent on vengeance, and one of these
oyerhauled the party. have been told
this on the best authority. As Bender
had shown no mercy toward the unsus-
pecting travellers who were shot in the
back from that kitchen door as they ate
at his table, none was shown to him or
his. They were wiped out and planted
where their bones will never be turned
up to the light Of day.o-Nes0 FORK
Sun.