The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1895-03-08

latter might set out also and meet him
there to hand him over to the authori-
ties.
On the 10Th OF November Uncle Buck
rode into Frankfort, hltched his horse
In front OF the executive mansion and
walked in to call on the governor The
head OF the commonwealth was kn
those days very accessible.
Where Is your prisoner, STRIP he de-
manded OF the sheriff, with some as
perity.
by gummy, he's here or here
abouts," was. the response, this by
word being the nearest to an oath
that Uncle Buck was ever known TO
utter. He then explained how he had
ridden across the country, while Lana
had walked, unattended.
"You don't suppose, sir, that that
man has come here to get locked up
for two years when you have given
him such q chance as this to run
away, do your" asked the governor.
"Of course 1 do" replied Uncle
Buck, land If you knOwed Larkinp
Lane as well as / do you'd think 50,
too"
And sure enough, there in the office
of the warden of the penitentiary they
found him. He had arrived half q day
before the sheriff, and sat there rest
ing and patiently waiting to be identi-
fed and committed.
The governor was so struck by the
singular circumstance that he began
TO inquire into the case
| Uncle Buck was n friend OF Lane
and, in speaking OF the injury done to
McAvoy, said:
Folks gIneraily thinks he's better
| looking sence he lost some o that flop
! lip, though nothin' could n made him
much uglier than he was natcheily-"
/ Upon talking with the prisoner the
downright honesty of the man became
/ more and more apparent, until finally
the governor was so impressed with
his good qualities that he determined
TO pardon him. concluding that the in
fiuence of such a man for good i'm Il
community was more needed than hrs
presence in the pententiary. And SO
Lane walked out of Frankfort a free
man. With fleeter foot than wheTs
he first set out he trudged thankfully
back to the mountains of Kinney and
the trout streams he loved so veifS
back to his home and friends, to hiAs
wife and children, who received him
with open arms and enthusiastic rc~
! joicing.
He lived for years to enjoy his Iber-
| ty, though he finally met his death at
! the hands of an assassin. He was
! found one summer day in one OF his
/ haunts on the banks Of mountaIEE'
| stream, with a bullet in his brain, his
fishing pole in the water, where it hAck
dropped from his lifeless hands:
The perpetrator OF the dastardiy
| deed was never found. Whether IL
was some avenger of McAvoy or not
no one ever knew. The latter had died
some years before.
AS for Uncle Buck, when his term
as sheriff ended he moved to an ad-
! joining county, where he was made
taller and served as the same untM
his death.
On one occasion when instructed to
omen court during the war he took the
liberty OF giving veut TO his loyalty by
calling out: "Oyez oyez, Oyer, the cir
cult court of NJ county is now open
God save NE Unlonr' The last words
were shouted with the full power Of
his stentorian lungs. Hearing the
same, the judge. who was not alto
gether in sympathy with Uncle Bucks
sentiments. rebuked him and ordered
him to change his appeal to the regu-
lation form Of God save the common
wealth." In much feebleF accents was
the divine protection irVSked upon the
state.
This circumstance really look place
many years ago in 1.-THE dark and
bloody ground" among people whom
we. with our 'fin de steele" ideas. look
back upon rs not enlightened II, in
- n
TO be found there then who held their
word dearer than liberty, truth SWEEPER
than freedom from disgrace.