Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1886-04-30

terry. Was it an Indian Of anotner ont
slawg Moving 80 cautio uslY what OBJ
.ject had he in view1 Had 81 once.
thought Of jackson. ] should not have
dared to hope be shAd come to my res
cue through that water; and, too, i
could not have believed be knew Of nv
Whereabouts. al !. ,S=s. n .'s$
From the time first eau ht sight Of
the figure to daylight was probably an
hour and q half, but it seemed to ME az
if I lived five years. I had no hopes
that the man was a friend, and yet i
could not look for q new enemy. Per-
haps, after all, it was q ~ one Of the
refugee negroes, of whom scores were
hiding in the swamps, who had made
his way to the scow in hopes to lay
hands on provisions or clothing. I
kept my eyes on the spot where I had
last seen him, and, as he did not reap
pear, I began to feel that he had'slipped
back into the water, and returned to
the shore %"*% w 5E.2@ef<
Did you ever watch the coming Of
daylight when you felt that with it
might come some life or death transac-
ton? The first signs came from the
birds. Then affair up the lake came the
cries of water fowl. A fox or some
other animal stood on the shore near
where we had tied up the night before
and barked in an angry voice. The
stars paled and drifted out of sight, and
the interior of the cabin began to light
up until could distinguish the forms of
the sleepers.
Where was the strange man-friend
or enemy? As if in response to my
| query he suddenly rose UP, stepped
! noiselessly inside the door, and next in
slant a revolver began to crack and
voice shouted at me: ~'>@'
keep down, Colonel; hug the foor!''
/ rolled over on my face and heard
yells, screams and groans. 1t was all
over in thirty seconds, and some one
called: "All right, Colonel!-I've
wiped the varmints out!'
sprang up to find jackson standing
in the center of the cabin, and on tho
floor lay outlaw, wife, and children, all
dead. It was as / had argued the day
previous. The two men had separated
in the woods-Sheen to return directly
to camp and Jackson to hunt for game
for supper. The outlaw had ambushed
Sheen and killed him, and Jackson had
heard the report of the gun and become
suspicious. He hurried to camp to find
me gone and everything taken, and had
traced us to the lake. He found indica-
tons to prove that boat had been used,
and he followed the shore of the lake
down until he found the scow at anchor
Not one man in thousand would
have shown his nerve He knew of
the aligators, could see dozen of
them moving about. and yet he dis
ROBBED, tied his weapons across his head,
and swan straight for the scow. and
reached it unnolestcd. He saw that
the only way was to wipe out all the
gang, and as soou as daylight would
guide his aim he began his work.
! When we had buried our comrade we
made close search of the floating cab
in, and we found indisputable proof
| of the murder of five or six persons.
In an old wooden bucket were two gold
and three silver watches, several pocket
knives, half a dozen rings, and 1926 in
gold. silver. and grcenbacks. AS none
of these articles could be traced back to
their owners, and as vengeance had
overtaken the murderers, we felt no hes
itation in taking possession of every
thing for the benefit of Shecn's widow.
The last act WAS to set fire to the
scow and push it out into the lake. 1t
was as merciful to consjgn the bodies
to the flames as to see the alligators
fight over them. Such human wolves
| did not deserve burial. L. CN1c000 Herald.