Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1895-01-03

From Romance.


PART I.
Before the advent q hose two
potent factors 10 civiIitlon steam
and electricity Mississippi
and Louisiana V6f5 i. y s}srsely
settled that in many counties and
parishes a bridle-path, twisting and
writhing like a great serpent
through the primeval forest, was
the only evidence of the invasion of
the white man, there roamed over
the Middle and Southern States a
band of robbers, under the leader
ship of a man named Murrell. The
members of this terrible organiza-
ton were scattered IN all directions
over every highway and by-path
in the country like the tentacles of
giant octopus. Many gallant
Kentuckian and thrifty trader from
Ohio, after having disposed of his
drove of horses or fiatboat of mer-
chandise in the South, when re-
turning home on horseback through
the wilderness, with his gold in e
belt around his waist, has bitten
the dust from the bullet of one of
these hidden assassins. Another
source of wealth to the marauders
was their traffic in negroes and
horses. 1t was when the fertile
swamp-lands of Mississippi and
Louisiana first began to attract at
tention, and here the robbers found
their richest field Of operation, with
strange immunity from detection.
A valuable negro or horse would be
stolen from the Middle States AMI
transferred from squad to
squad of the gang until the extreme
South was reached. when the booty
was sold at an immense profit.
On a plateau Of the Blue Ridge
Mountains Of North Carolina there
lived, at the time of this story, a
planter named Battle--a widower,
with but one child, q young man
twenty years old.
Mr.. Battle was considered a man
of wealth in those primitive times,
and his two-storied brick house,
with its unadorned, white e-plastered
walls and narrow window-panes,
was regarded as little less than a
palace by his unsophisticated neigh
bors. His wife died a few days
after the birth of his son, Alexar-
der, or Aleck, as he was more famil-
iarly called, and the little one was
nursed and reared by the negro
housekeePer, who fortunately had
an infant of about the same age, to
whom she had given the fanciful
cognomen of Romeo.
The two children grew up more
like foster brothers than master and
slave. They were constantly to-
gether, sharing the same sports.
eating the same kind of food. and
wearing the same style of clothes,
for Romeo, being size smaller than
Aleck, fell heir to all his masters
outgrown apparel, and fashions
then were not as evanescent as now
When Aleck was old enough to be
sent off to Virginia to college,
Romeo went along as matter of
course, as his -xFy1- Returning
home for the Christmas holidays,
the rumbling stage, IN which they
were passengers, stopped for the
first night at a lonely little tavern.
When Aleck entered the front
room, which served as both kitchen
and parlor, he found two men seat
ed at a table. drawn mp near the
large, open Fireplace, playing cards
by the ruddy blaze of pine-knots.
They were well dressed, of quiet de-
meanor, and be readily accepted
their invitation to join the game.
That night, as Romeo was about
seeking his lodging in the negro
quarters, one of the strangers called
him into his bedroom and asked
him to clean the mud from his
cloak, at the same time handing
him a glass Of wine as compensation.
When he awoke the following
morning. he found himself lying in
the back part of a light wagon, his
feet and hands manacled, his head