Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1893-10-06

ne asked me some orner question ABOUT
the village and l answered him, and
before l knew it we got to talking as
we walked along, his way happening
to be tie same as mine; but I'm sure he
didn't mean any harm and know 1
didn't He was a real civil, we'll
spoken young man
81 suppose there wasn't man in
sight he could ask, so he must need
seek his information from you,' says I,
for felt ugly, and her praising him
didn't mend matters.
-said-he-preferred to ask
me- she stammered.
Because you were such a pretty
girl He mentioned that, didn't hep
"I think-he-said something of the
sort
''The art of the chap and her inno-
cence made me mad, so that snorted
in Nv wrath and broke out: a fine
gomus l am, to put my faith in girl
that lets herself DE soft sawdered by the
first thing with brass buttons that
comes along
Don't be angry with me, joe she
pleaded. 4 didn't mean any harm; in
deed l didn't, and I won't ever do it
again. As true as you live, Joe, won't
l won't even see him when he comes
again.
Ohio! says I, he's coming again, is
hep
'He-he-said he would, but didn't
tell him he might. He said he would
come Thursday evening and take me to
a grand concert in the city; but didn't
say 1 would 60 Indeed l didn't. And
/ wouldn't, Joe, even if | knew you
could never hear of it.
"Well, we made up and before we
parted she told me everything. The
fellow said he was Lord Eitz-Eustace
Blakely and that he was a lieutenant
on the Avenger, but with all the adj
vantages of the high society he moved
in at home, and even at the royal court,
he had never seen u girl so lovely as my
Mary. OF course, you know, a young
girl likes to hear that kind of stuff,
even if her sense tells her afterward it
isn't true, so he just charmed her into
listening to him And nothing must do
him but he must have the honor of es-
corting her to the grand concert, to
show his brother officers, who would
all be there, how fair flower grew on
American soil. | said to myself as /
walked home late that evening: If
you go to that concert yourself, my
fascinating lieutenant, it will be be-
cause 1 fail of throwing my shuttle
across your web as / mean to- And
the next day had a talk with three
other young fellows, friends of mine,
and we made it up between us to give
the lieutenant a reception if he came
again after Mary, such as he would not
be likely to forget the longest day of
his life.
''Sure enough, he came; rugged out in
such style you might think it was his
wedding he was going to and golG lace
enough on him to make the worlds
eyes ache if he walked in the sun. But
we were not blinded by the glory of
him, for he didn't come until after
dark. A fine carriage brought him and
he left it a bit of ways off. met
him where he had thought to meet
Mary, and civilly bidding him good
evening asked if he hadn't lost his way.
whats that to you, fellow?' he an
swered me, as proud and insolent as a
DdIISn DuIL sDLdHu dSldc. anu he DuD
out his hand to push me out of the way.
But before he could touch me / gave
hir7 such clout under the jaw that he
span around, and as he did so / back
heeled him. All! / tell you we weaver
lais were handy young fellows in those
days. The first thing he knew an old
cloak was over his head to smother his
howls his august nose was boring the
sidewalk and we had his hands turned
behind his back, where we tied them.
Then we lashed his feet together and
SO, having made neat package of him,
carried him along, soft and easy, down
to the river, where we laid him in the
bottom of boat we had ready and
rowed out to mid-stream. From the
moment | thumped him until we
stopped in the middle of the river not
one of us said word, and the silence
and system of our proceedings must
have been, 1 judge, a good deal of
strain on his nerves.
"When we laid to, with couple of
oars just keeping the boats nose
against the tide, we took the cloak from
around his head, first warning him that
the man who sat behind him had big
hammer to smash his skull if he made
loud noise. But, by the way his teeth
chartered and the huskiness of his
voice when he spoke, it hardly seemed
as if he could have given one good shout
then to have saved bis life.
""Tabe my money, my watch, my
Jewels everything, but spare my life,'
he stammered in qulvering voice that
sounded almost like CRYING
"'You're life is all we want, says
al savagely as / could-and the boys
did me the credit to say my style was
blood-curdhng, though I nightly
wanted to laugh. We mean to make
terrible example of the Britisher who
comes TO practice his libertine arts on
the maids of Greenwich village
"'Villainsr he exclaimed. My noble
cousin, the earl of Tweedledum'-or
some such name-'w;ll make You suffer
for this outrage
It'll be a safe wager l answered,
that you will never tell him about it
'Then he begged hard for his life
and swore he meant the girl no harm,
but we turned deaf ear to him, and
as exercising it seemed to strengthen
with handkerchief and proceeded to
business While he listened we de-
bated how we should kill him. Most
were for cutting his throat, only it
would be likely to bloody the boat, and
because of that wouldn't do Other
ways were discussed, some of them
atrocious, and It's wonder we could
keep straight faces through it all
Finally it was made up we should
put him afoat astride a big keg, that
just happened to be in the boat, with
heavy stone, that was her anchor, slung
to his feet to keep him upright and we
would bore lot of gimlet holes in the
keg, so that it could fill slowly with
water and go down gradually under
the weight of him and the stone. For
that we made our preparations He
could hear us boring the holes, only as
we had laid him down he could not see
it was through bit of board we were
making them and no5 in the keg, which