Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1890-02-19
The Secret Out.

ana our meetinB every Weunesuay
night. 1t has gradually come to be
believed in the village that there wa S
gang of desperate ruffians who fre-
quented the place and carried terror
and CONSERVATION wherever they went.
1t was supposed that these toughs
came from settlement some distance
south of us, known as Corktown.
This settlement was mostly composed
of foreigners who did the laboring
work for the neighborhood. They
were peaceable, quiet, useful body of
citizens, but as the secret conclave
began to get in its work this innocent
settlement began to be looked upon
with distrust by all the villagers.
But as nothing could be proved
against them, nothing ever came of it.
OF course, there were many ingenious
schemes arranged by the villagers for
the catching of these desperadoes, but
as these schemes were all talked over
at every village breakfast table, we
boys were up to them and naturally
we did not fall into the traps. This
gradually lent an air of mystery to the
deeds that were done, and at last the
villagers began to be afraid to 60 out
of doors at night except in twos and
threes, for fear of meeting the Williams
who had set fire to the school house
and who had transferred the apples
from one cellar to another. The viii
layers lived in daily terror of some
fearful crime being perpetrated that
would battle forever the blood-hounds
of Justice and remain a blot Oh the
fair fame of the neighborhood.
But just as the secret conclave was
getting along nicely we received ter
rible blow, and that from the hand of
one of our friends. This friend was
no other than the captains son. The
last night that he attended the secret
cOnclave he was in great spirits but
there was certain nervous anxiety
about him that we could not make out,
although we little suspected the ter
rible treachery that he was about
to display. During the last night
that he was with us Bill Simmons, the
captains son, spoke casually of the
fact that he had just celebrated his
18th birthday. He was the oldest
boy in the conclave but not the best
fighter, so, of course, his age did not
give him the precedence amongst us
that fighting qualities would have be-
slowed In fact, Bill was good deal
of coward, and that is a quality
that boys heartily despise. Even the
youngest boy in the conclave had had
his time at humping Bill successfully.
Bill had a certain amount of self-con-
ceit because of his father being cap
tain that we boys could not put up
with, and so one after another we had
our turn at thrashing him in order to
subdue this self-conceit, and l pre-
sumo Bill was very glad to get a
chance of deserting our ranks. The
next night of the conclave the tavern
keepers boy came running to the
house of meeting.
Boys" he shouted excitedly, "Do
you know what's going onl Bill
Simmons is joining the templars"
If the roof had fallen in it couldn't
have been more CONSERVATION among
us boys than there was when the tav-
ern keepers son gave out his appal-
ling news. Bill Simmons had been
the boy we were always afraid of any
how. If put in a corner we felt sure
he would disclose the secrets of our
order. Now, here, week after he was
IA years of age, he had basely deserted
the secret conclave and had joined the
ranks of the elders. Who could tell
that if he were put on the rack in the
torture room of the lodge, he would
at once give away all the depredations
that we boys had committed. One
boy proposed that the correct thing
to do would be to capture Bill an d
either immure him forever in dark
dungeon or execute him with fiendish
cruelty. 1t was admitted by all that
this was the proper thing to do under
the circumstances, but then, unfortu-
nately, we did not have dungeon
that is, not real, suitable, dark dun
geon-in the village, and as for ex-
ecuting him as traitor, we had seri-
Gus doubts about the legality of such
a proceeding. 1t was resolved, how
ever, that we would meet Bill on the
morrow as if nothing had happened,
and as it was quite certain that he
would not say word about his treach-
erous desertion Of our conclave. we
would then entice him to the woods
where his cries could not be heard
and we would wiring from him, by
torture if necessary, the secrets of the
lodge which we knew by this time he
had learned.
| Next day Bill had a certain shame
faced expression of countenance as he