Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-10-14
. CHAPTER VIII. ,
 A PITCHED RATTLE

CHAPTER VI1
 PITCHED BATTLE.
 Holding my hand as if she was de, termined that I should not have the least opportunity to turn back, of my | own accord, or get separated from hen by some inadvertence, Fan drew me to narrow door in one corner of the room, that opened upon a stairway leading to the basement From the bottom of this stairs it was plain "go- ing' to the outer door, us Fan re- marked. The rain had come in ono of those terrific dashes that seem to empty cloud with one explosion, and now only moderate steady shower battered along in tho rear and from the tattered fringes of the skirt of the great black cloud that had already flown past us and away to tho northwest, still firing its broadsides of sheeted flame like some vast black pirate ship of the upper air pursuing some fleet of white, soft, peaceful mer- chant clouds now hull down upon the horizon and spreading every stitch of canvas to the breeze, with the partial ly visible moon upon them all.
 Across the wide hollow back of the Leatherwood House we went rapidly, listening to the sharp crackle of the rifles and, hearing occasionally the noisy whiz of a stray bullet, humming from the point of some sudden deflect- ing surface of hard oak log or post, out into the fringing thickets. Once we turned as if instinctively to look back. As we did so broad band of red flame fan-shaped and scintillating leapcd out of the southeast corner of the house we had SO lately quilted as if it sprang from the upper story outs toward the wide opening that consti- tuted the junction of the public square with the river road Following this flash, at what seemed an interminable. interval, came roar that filled at once all the vast and echoing space along the wide river bottom. We stood for moment listening to the appalling echoes of this new and terrible sound, and then turned and ran on until we reached the crest of tho ridge where Squire Goings had lived from the first settlement of the country. The house was the usual double-log, cov- cred at later date with oak weather boarding and having small frame ad- dition jutting up against the wide old fashioned covered porch. .:
 Here was gathered half the popula- tion of Sandtown, including part of the bar of the Shutdown Circuit, with Major Griggs, who had been in the war of 1872 and who was authority up on very many points of vital interest in the present extraordinary episode occurring under our immediate obser- vation.
 ''He's firun that. cannon mostly to sk-year them fellers," said the Major, with knowing smile clearly visible in the increasing light of tho rising moon and the clearing sky. '.They haint so dang'urce as they look. Thum cannon! They don't kill near as many as the little guns. There! Listen at that! That's the kine shootun at hurts, boysr' he continued, as an unprecedentedly loud and sus- tained rattle of rifles swelled and sub- sided with the great roar of the cannon as a finish.
 "That must been Q charge onto the tavern. Elf it a0as, they didn't git um! Yo see the cannon fired last. There it goes agin, too! They're loadun un shootun bout as fast as they kin now. Un that means as they druv the tackun party back. They've gut blame good gin-- url to fight aginst when they've gut Bogus Leatherwood aginst um," con- tinued the Major, with laugh that was thought to indicate his martial familiarity with scenes of blood and danger.
 "some sez, Major, at Bogus uz ben terrible feller ill his tinnc," said old Squire Goings, with sly smile on his broad, red, mottled face, and in that intonation that, whilel it does not pro- pound question directly, invites con- firmation or contradiction. 'Some sez at he's ben in sich scrapes before, un & goodeel wuss uns un uss, too, of they tell the truth about ut''
 Fl don't know nuthun about ut" said the Major, with the trained law yer's cautious conservatism. '.Hit ar aleeged at he yusen to be tcr-blc fcl- Ter aginst the Bridish But most nv ar ancestry's was thataway cn thanl' times. Tharc goes that blame cannon
 To be continue.