The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1894-02-03

him an intolerable imposition, against
which it is not only lawful bat meritorious
to rebel. Hence a violent hatred against
the custom house officers and the firm in
tention to shoot them in cold blood if nee
essary.
The officers know this, and often when
they meet smugglerin a rough and desert
place, il they are not numerous enough to
Overpower him, and if they do not think
the merchandise has a special value, they
pretend not to see him and pass on looking
the other way.
1t is easy 20 shoot, and at those heights
body may easily be carried long distance
without detection. The officer does not re-
turn, suspicious fall on the true murderer,
patrols start out searching for the dead
man through the defiles of the mountains,
but no one obtains sure proofs.
My guide had once found himself un-
armed within range of two officers, and he
had escaped by miracle. At another
time, unseen, he had rolled down from the
cliff quantity of stones on the heads OF
two officers who were climbing up the
slope, and one of them, while endeavoring
to escape, lost his musket.
''That was the musket l showed yOu,"
added Jacques with triumphant air.
''But " hat q horrible life! and the profit is
little you know
He related to me his nocturnal trips in
winter alone over the deadly glaciers,
loaded like mule. FOgs beset him and
family, q circumstance, in view Of the
character the place already bore, not at
all difficult, hitched up another horse,
and in company with my father and
younger brother, returned to the scene
Of my late horrible experiences, and the
Investigations we there made in refer
ence to the noises and other phenomena
will am afraid, only disgust those i'm
aginative minds which are always on
the alert for startling denouements.
The gnawing sounds we found had
been produced by the chatting of the
wagon hub against loose board in the
haymow, and every time the animals
reached forward after their fodder the
movement carried rusty, cultural,
scraping of the turntable. which simu-
lated the sound, Joe, Joe," with suffi-
Gent nearness to mislead cooler head
than mine was just at that time.
The demoniac laughter which had so
Mortified me was of equally absurd orr
gin, being simply the rafting and clat-
tering of thin, loose clapboard high
up in the gable whenever gust stronger
than usual struck it. For the light l
could find no explanation other than the
only possible fact that it was simply a
! phosphorescent exhalation from little
swamp near by, one Of those luminous
methylic vapors, variously known as
will-o' -the-wisp. Jack-o'-lantern, ignis
fatuus, etc.
The place was infested with rats, and
it was doubtless their scurrying back
and forth over the floor which sounded
so much like stealthy footsteps either
that or the falling of the large rain
drops which found their way through
the leaky roof.
There too lay the reptile which had so
nearly strangled me-a long, soft strip
of the inner bark of one of the cedar
rafters, which, saturated by the rain,
had fallen across the back of my neck
as stopped forward, and you can readi-
ly appreciate the sensation such thing,
| unexpected and in total darkness, would
be apt to produce.
While we were making these discover
les and remarking how little daylight
and good common sense will knock the
props from under the best ghost story
ever gotten up, we were all startled by
sudden rat-tat-tat on the barn door.
My father hastily unfastened it, ex-
pecting of course, to meet one of the
neighbors, or possibly strolling tramp,
and noticed a queer expression come
over his face. There was not a soul
there.
He had hardly closed the door, how
ever, when the sharp rat-tat-tat was re-
peated, this time considerably prolonged.
Again the door was opened quickly,
and again not soul was in sight.
There was little door in the rear of
the barn, and, leaving my father and
brother looking at one another in some
what funny manner, quietly unfas-
tened this, and as the knocking had re-
commenced, slipped quickly around out
side to the front of the barn, only to see
a large redheaded woodpecker diligent-
ly tapping away on the door in search of
his breakfast.
We got away from that place with all
the expedition possible, and ever since
my skepticism in reference to the vivid
and ornate stories of a similar character,
which we so frequently hear, is pretty
radically confirmed by the simple re-
membrance of my own blood curdling
experience that night-with the ghosts.
y. R. Parke in Buffalo News.
How an Island Grew.
In 1867 her majesty's ship Falcon report
| ed shoal about thirty miles west of Ma
muka, one of the islands in the Tonga or
Friendly group. This was considered