Waterbury evening Democrat., 1893-06-15
WARNINGS PERIL.
By Capt. Chas. King, of the U. s. Army.
 Copyright by Lippincott.

All that day the storm ragged in fury; the kevee road was blocked in places by the boughs torn from overhang- ing trees, and here, there and every where turned into a quagmire by the torrents that could find no adequate egress to the northward swamps. For over a mile above the barracks it looked like one vast canal, and by nine o'clock it was utterly impossible. No cars were running on the dilapidated road to the halfway house," whatever they might be doing beyond. There was only one means of communication between the garrison and the town, and that on horseback along the crest of the levee, and people in the second story windows of the store and dwell ing houses along the other side of the way, driven aloft by the drenched con- dition of the ground floor, were sur prised to see the number of times some Yankee soldier or other made the dis nal trip. Cram, with party of four, was perhaps the first. Before the drip ping sentries of the old guard were re- lieved at nine o'clock every man and woman at the barracks was aware that foul murder had been done during the night, and that old Lascelles, slain by some unknown hand, slashed and hacked in a dozen places, according to the stories afloat, lay in his gloomy old library up the levee road, with a flood already a foot deep wiping out from the grounds about the house all traces of his assailants. Dr. Denslow, in ex- amining the body, found just one deep, downward stab, entering above the upper rib and doubtless reaching the heart-a stab made by a long, straight, sharp, two-edged blade. He had been dead evidently some ho3rs when dis covered by Cram, who had now gone to town to warn the authorities, old Brax meantime having taken upon himself the responsibility of placing a guard at the house, with orders to keep Al phonse and his mother in and every body else out
 It is hardly worth while to waste time on the various theories advanced in the garrison as to the cause and means of the dreadful climax. That Doyle should tpO away from the post provoked neither comment nor specu- lation; he was not connected in any way with the tragedy. But the fact that Mir. Waring was absent all night, coupled with the stories of his devo- tions to madame, was to several minds prima facie evidence that his was the bloody hand that wrought the deed that he was now a fugitive from jus tice, and Mime. Lascelles, beyond doubt, the guilty partner of his flight. Everybody knew by this time of their hnsnnr f0rafha1~ T111Yoh of hA 3r1c. how could people help knowing, when Dryden had seen them? In his ele- gantly jocular way, Dryden was al- ready condoling with Ferry on the probable loss of his Hatfield clothes, and comforting him with the assur- ance that they always gave a feller a new black suit to be hanged in, so he might get his duds back after all, only they must get Waring first Jeffers doubtless would have been besieged with questions but for Grams fore sight: his master had ordered him to accompany him to town.
 In silence a second time the little party rode away, passing the flooded { homestead where lay the murdered ! man, then, farther on, gazing in mute | curiosity at the closed shutters of the premises some infantry satirists had | already christened "the dove-cot.' ' What cared they for him or his objec. tionable helpmate? Still, they could not but note how gloomy and deserted it all appeared, with two feet of water tapping the garden wall. Summoned by his master, Jeffers knuclxled his oil skin hat-brim and pointed out the spot where Mir. Waring stood when hC knocked the cabman into the mud, but Jeffcrs' tongue was tied and his cock ney volubility gone. The tracks made 1 by Cram's wagon up the slope were al ready washed out, Bending forward to dodge the blinding storm, the party pushed along the embankment until a
 last the avenues and alleys to the righ
 gave proof of better drainage. A
 Rampant street they separated, Pierce going on to report the tragedy to the police, Cram turning to his right anC
 following the broad thoToughfare an other mile, until Jeffers, indicating { big, old-fashioned, broad-galleriet southern house standing in the mids
 of grounds once trim and handsome
 but now showing signs of neglect anC
 penury, simply said: "'Ere, sir" An(
 here the party dismounted.
 Cram entered the gate and pulled { changing bell The door was almos
 Instantly opened by Q colored girl, a
 whose side, with eager joyous face, wa
 the pretty child he had seen so oftel
 playing about the Lascelles homestead
 and the eager joyous look faded in
 stantly away.
 "She t'ink 1t M'sieur Vareeng win
 comes to arrive" explained the smiling
 colored girl
 "Ahl It is Mime. d'Hervilly I wish t see," answered Cram, briefly. "Pleas
 take her my card" And, throwing o1 his dripping rain coat and tossing 1t t
 Jeffers, who had followed to the verar da, the captain stepped within the hal and held forth his hands to Min Mir . begging her to come to him who wa
 so good a friend of MT. Waring. Bu
 she would not. The tears of disGI pointment were in the dark eyes as tn , little one turned and ran away. CraI