The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1893-02-24

He tried TO open his clothes as il to
look for the wound, but his fingers
slipped on the buttons. With that he
gave q great sigh, his head rolled on his
shoulder, and he passed away.
The lawyer said never a word, but his
face was as sharp as a pen and as white
as the dead mans; the servant broke out
into great noise of crying and weep
ing, like child; and ], on my side, stood
staring at them in kind of horror.
The sheriff's officer had run back at the
first sound Of the shot, to hasten the
coming of the soldiers.
At last the lawyer laid down the dead
man in his blood upon the road, and got
to his own feet with kind of stagger.
l believe it was his movement that
brought me to my senses, for he had no
sooner done so than began to scramble
up the hill, crying out, The murderer!
the murderer
So little a time elapsed that when |
got to the top OF the first steepness, and
could see some part Of the open noun
tain, the murderer was still moving
away at no great distance. He was a
big man, in a black coat with metal
buttons, and carried a long fowling piece.
"Here!" cried. 81 see him"
At that the murderer gave little,
quick look over his shoulder and began
to run. The next moment he was lost
in fringe of birches; then he came out
again ON the upper side, where l could
see him climbing like jackanapes, for
that part was again very steep, and then
he dipped behind shoulder, and l saw
him no more.
All this time had been running on
my side and had got good way when
voice cried upon me to stand.
was at the edge of the upper wood,
and so now, when halted and looked
back, saw all the open part of the hill
below me. The lawyer and the sheriff
officer were standing just above the
road, crying and waving on me to come
back, and on their left the redcoats,
musket in hand, were beginning to strug-
gle singly out of the lower wood.
"Why should I come back?" cried.
"Come you onw
"Ten pounds If We take that ladr' cried
the lawyer. "He's an accomplice. He
was posted here to hold us in talk"
AT that word (Which could hear quite
plainly, though it was to the soldiers
and not to me that he was crying it) my
heart came in my mouth with quite a
new kind of terror. Indeed it is one
thing to stand the danger of your life
and quite another to run the peril of
both life and character. The thing, be-
sides, had come so suddenly, like thun-
der out of a clear sky, that / was all
amazed and helpless.
The soldiers began to spread, some of
them to run and others to put up their
pieces and cover me, and still stood.
"Jouk [duck in here among the trees, -
said a voice close by.
Indeed | scarce knew what | was
doing, but / obeyed, and as did 80 |
heard the firelocks bang and the balls
whistle in the birches.
Just inside the shelter of the tre'g |
found Alan Breck standing, with a J. y
ing rod. He gave me no salutation. M.
Iced it was no time for civilities; G y
"Come!" said he, and setting off rum !;
along the side of the mountain tow ~
Balachulish, and /, like a sheep, to 4 =
low him.
New we ran among the birches, NJ
STOPPING behind low humps upon Ia
mountain side, now crawling upon I'll
tours among the heather. The pace W; !
deadly; my heart seemed burstil f;
against my ribs, and had neither tine
to think nor breath to speak with. O.. =
l remember seeing with wonder t,,t
Alan every now and then would straig 1T
en- himself to his full height and look
back, and every time he did so there
came great PARKWAY cheering and cry
ing of the soldiers.
Quarter of an hour later Alan stopped,
clapped down fiat in the heather, and
turned to me.
"Now," said he, Its earnest. Do as
| do for your life"
And at the same speed, but now with
infinitely more precaution, we traced
back again across the mountain side by
the same way that we had come, only
perhaps higher, till at last Alan threw
himself down in the upper wood of Let
termore, where had found him at the
first, and lay with his face in the
pracken, painting like a dog.
My own sides so ached, my head so
swan, my tongue so hung out of my
mouth with heat and dryness that l lay
beside him like one dead.