The Dickinson press., 1891-05-02

board the train seven hours more, when
by tramping twelve or fifteen miles over .
craggy, roadless mountain, l could prOba-
bly, get home by noon.
Though the probably discouraged me, l
thanked the conductor for his advice, shut
my teeth hard on my misery, and tried to
make the best of it.
That was the longest night of my life.
1t seemed to me that it would never end.
Day was just breaking when We reached
the station where !. was to leave the train
and begin my foot journey over the mount
ain.
Hard as was the ascent of that trackless,
precipitous mountain-side, it was q vast
improvement on the train. l was IN mo
ton myself nOw-doing something, wheth-
er it would avail ME anything or not.
Soon the sun was up. Altogether too
OOH it had accomplished half its journey
from horizon to zenith.
1t was then that l reached the mountain
top, with a good seven miles of rough
walking still before me.
Duke was to be hanged at noon, unless l
was on time.
At ten o'clock I was but two miles away
from him; and with all of the horrors of
my journey presumably behind me-,
smiled at the thought of how easy the rest
would be, and how 1 should disappoint
those who were even then gathering to see
my client hanged.
A vine caught my foot and threw ME.
Falling, l sprained my ankle, and the pain
was so intense that l had to exert every
atom of my will to keep from going into a
dead faint.
Breaking a forked stick from a sapling
l extemporized it into a crutch, and hob,
bled off as best l could.
At the end of an hour l had made but
half a mile, and was so exhausted that ]
knew another fifteen minutes would bring
my locomotive powers to a full stop.
Poor Duke must die, after all. There
was no help for it, and with an cutlery OF
heap.
The mental anguish 1 suffered in the
half-hour which followed was enough to
unseat a mans reason.
Watch in hand, l counted the flecting
seconds.
In twenty-five minutes my client would
hang, for want of the reprieve in my
pocket.
And then, joyous sound, heard ap.
preaching feet!
A moment later a negro appeared. He
vas old, dirty, and Supplementary unable
to understand me until mentioned money,
When l said: II will give you 500 if you
get this paper into the hands of the sheriff
before twelve O'clock" with a yell like a
fiend he snatched the reprieve out of my
hand and darted away.
Again l sought my watch.
My messenger had twenty-five minutes
in which to cover a mile and a half, a por.
ton of his route being through thick un.
derbrush. 1t was doubtful if he would
make it.
The hour which passed before he return.
ed with help seemed a hundred years tc
me.
II done got dar," he gasped, nearly out Of
breath; IA de gemman am all safe"
Probably it was unmanly, but 1 wep,
for joy.
They tried to make a hero of me for thai
exploit, but l am too commonplace and
stolid for that. l had simply done my
duty. l had saved my client. That wa
all.
However, l was rewarded more glorious
ly yet.
Before Dukes reprieve expired his but
Ter was taken seriously i'll. Just before liz
died he made a startling confession.
1t was ne who killed Mrs. Duke.
She caught him in the act of stealing bel
jewels and he killed her to escape punish
ment. Returning a moment later to make
sure that his victim was dead, he saw
Duke beside the dead woman with tht
bloody knife, so made capital out of this
circumstance by swearing away his EN-
ployer's life to save his own.