The Abbeville messenger. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1884-1887, 1886-08-03

nrSC thlnS 1 noticed was that the table
was set lengthwise of the room, and that
my chair and plate had been SO placed
that my back would be toward tho
kitchen door, which was not over five or
six feet away. Had it been ut the other
end my back would have been toward
the office door. Tho first move I made
was to turn the chair around to the side
and sit down. I now faced the bedroom
door, and had the other doors to my
right and left, where there was no win
dow behind me. The younger woman
was in the room, and she looked at me
in q queer, strange way as I 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 1 could not
see him, I heard him and the woman
whispering together, and I caught the
words as spoken by her:
"I tell you he did it himselfp
81 could not catch a word from him,
and directly he went out and she came
in with the rest of the catables. Her
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.
"cExcuse me-Tm sorry she said, rs
l showed back to keep the hot liquid
from dripping on my legs.
".Ncvcr mind-no harm done,' I re-
piled.
"It was SO careless of me. You had
better change your seat to tho end while
I sop it up
"'Oh, don't mind. Pm not hungry
and shall cat but n few mouthfuls any
way. I forgot to tell you that I pre-
ferred water to Coffee
".But-you-you'--
"I'm all right
she gave me one OF the qucerest looks
1 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 drow back, and when I showed
away and entered the office he was not
there and did not show up for FIVE min
utcs. When I went to dinner u double
barrelled shotgun stood in q corner of
the office. When I came out it was
gone. The old man came in after n
while, and it wa easy to see that he had
to force himself to converse. I paid him
for the meal and was ready to 60. 1t
was a lonely road 1 had to travel, with
no other house for miles, and it sudden
ly 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 I quite lost
my sand, and you can Judge what a re-
lief it vas to me to see o 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 n lift on my way. I
did not inipart my suspicious to them,
and it was not until the horrible stories
came out that I felt sure in my mind
what a close call I had had.
"Do I know what became of old Ben
der and his family2 You remember that
they fed the country, or that the paper,
so reported, and for months we used to
hear from n locality and another of the
fugitives being seen or captured. I
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 it's
graveyard in the rear. Bands of men
were riding in this or that direction,
bent on vengeance, and one of these
overhauled 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 Us 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."-New York
Sun.