St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1894-02-15


travel. 1t was turn about with the
clipping process, and when they had
finished we could hardly believe them
to be the same two men. Only can
dies were used in the house, and
they had used only one up to this
time. A second dip was brought
out of the pantry, and one OF the
pair used it to 60 upstairs. he was
gone about ten minutes, and when
he returned he had hat, cap, two
coats, and other things belonging to
Uncle Dams wardrobe. They made
use of the clothes as far as they
would go to rehabilitate themselves,
while they made a bundle of what
they cast off and placed it on a char
to take away. Will and | dared not
approach nearer than ten feet to
the window, and therefore caught
only a word now and then OF con-
versation, and that was pretty sure
to be an oath. They must have ar
gued that they were pretty safe from
pursuit, and they took their time
about everything and seemed
entirely at home. When they had
made the change of clothes l thought
they would be off, and wanted Will
to come along and give the alarm,
but he whispered in my ear;
II don't believe they'll go without
something more to eat, and l want
to see how our bear trap works"
l don't know whether the fellows
hungered for more supper or wanted
food to take away with them, but
three minutes after Will had spoken
one of them was rummaging through
the pantry, and the other was on
his way down cellar. He halted in
the door and snuffed and shifted as
if he smelled the preserves, and as he
started to descend the stairs he said
something to his companion which
we could not catch, though we saw
his lips moving and a grin on his
face. That grin couldn't have lasted
over fifteen seconds. | expect the fell
low must have held his candle in
such way as to cast a shadow on
the bear trap waiting for him, for he
stepped fairly into it as he reached
the bottom of the stairs. We were
holding our breaths when we got
the signal, and the signal was a
series of yells which made the hair
curl. The fellow upstairs had just
come out of the pantry with the tea
canister in his hand and the yeils al
most lifted him out of his old shoes.
Instead of going to the assistance of
his companion he dashed for the
door, and as he came out and rushed
away in the darkness he passed
within five feet of us.
There was a creek running across
80 i
spot 1t widened out and flowed over
a bed of quicksand. This spot was
fenced off to keep the stock away.
When the man came running out,
we thought he was after us, and
while he took one direction we flew
in another, and had gone half a mile
before we realized that he was not
pursuing US. We were skulking back
to the house when we heard shouts
and yells from the direction of the
creek, and when we had crept up to
the fence we made out man strug-
CLING in the quicksand. The fear
that he would get out prevented us
from revealing our presence, and as
we neared the house we expected to
find that the other man had released
himself from the trap. He hadn't
accomplished the feat, however. He
had been caught by the right leg,
with the jaws of the trap gripping
him just below the knee, and the
first we heard of him as we crept up
to the open door he was trying to
get up the cellar stairs. He was ff-
teen minutes in accomplishing this,
and the way he did curse and take
on was something awful. There
was light on the kitchen table and
we could see him plainly. He back
ed up the stairs, drawing the trap
after him, but on reaching the kitch-
en- the pain took all the pluck out of
him, and he lay down and cried like
a boy taking a switching. When
we saw that he was pretty safely
captured, we started off to arouse
the sheriff, and an hour later were
back with that officer and two of
his deputies. The fellow down at
the creek was uttering a yell occa-
sionally, while the victim of the bear
trap had managed to get out doors
and was trying to pry the jaws open
with the ak. If he had whimpered
under the pain an hour before he
made up for it now by defying the
officers. They didn't want to shoot
him, and he kept them at bay with
his ak, crippled as he was. until the
sheriff finally knocked him over with
a club. 1t took a good half hour to
open the trap, and the fellow s
tongue kept going all the time.
When we got the lantern and went
down to see the situation of the
other prisoner we found that he had
sunk into the quicksand up to his
armpits and then rested, probably
because of his feet striking a log or
stone. He wasn't suffering any
bodily pain, but he was as safely
caught as if he had bear trap on