The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1895-05-10
MARKED FOR DEATH.
THE MOUNTAINEER MET HIS
DEATH BRAVELY.
Riding Homeward and Shot from AM
bush by His Old Enemy-So the Long
Feud Was Ended-A Widow and

mountain range Is a hamlet. That
means store, blacksmith shop, a
church, a shoemaker, and three or four
houses-perhaps thirty residents in all.
1t was founded fifty years ago. Old
Is, came to town. There were mules
to be reshod, boots to be mended, tea
and tobacco to be purchased. Now
and then one confidently inquired for
mail at the postofiice and was handed
out letter or the weekly county paper.
There was peace and good nature for
half day. Everybody shook hands
and made friendly inquiries and felt at
peace. At noon there was less jollity,
less joking, says the New York Adver-
tiser. The bottle of moonshine whisky
had been handed about until two or
three men were drunk, two or three
more silly and reckless, the remainder
churlish and ill-tempered. BY and by
one of the long-haired, angular noun
taineers-one Of a pair who sat close
by each other for an hour without
speaking-finds the excuse sought for
and turns and makes a bitter remark.
1t is bitterly resented. Next instant
both are on their feet and have knives
in their hands. Before they can use
them, however, other men spring for
ward and separate them and one is led
away. An old wound has been opened
honor impugned. Some said it were
better to let them fight 1t out then and
afH catI oil To- I'm
might be effected. While they are ar
guing one of the principals walked out
to where his mule stood dejectedly in
the rain and mounted and rode away.
The crowd looked after him, but no
man called him a coward. What they
whispered to each other was:
Toms gwine home to git his gun
and ambush Dan! Dan better not go
home today!
Eyes; Tom will ambush me on the
road. We he'd better fit it out right
yere."
From that moment he was doomed
man. He fully realized it and he did
not bluff or buster or seek to conceal
his true feelings. His way was lone
ly one. To remain in town over night
would subject him to general con-
tempt. To request anyone to ride home
with him would make him a coward
in the eyes of all. When the rest went
he must go. Tom would be waiting
for him in some roadside 'thicket or be-
hind some great rock, but he must go
forward Just the same.
Two o'clock, o'clock, 4 o'clock. 1t
was the same leaden sky, the same
monotonous patter of raindrops. After
2 o'clock the men had avoided Dan.
They knew what he knew-that he was
doomed man. When the mark of
death is placed on a living man he
must live out his hours alone. All
living men pass him by. At o'clock
half dozen men mounted and rode
away. AS they did so they looked over
their shoulders to see if Dan was COM
ing. He saw them do it and waited
ten minutes. Then he mounted and
rode after them.
Two miles away the trail he must
take branched off the main road. At
that spot he halted for a moment. He
had paid the storekeeper a small bal
ance he owed him. He had gone to the
blacksmith and squared accounts. He
had scrawled a brief missive to his
wife, telling her what to do after his
death. Was there anything further?
Was he quite ready? He had not Of
fered his hand nor said good-by to any
of the men, but that was not expected
of him. Yes, he was ready, and he
picked up the lines and urged his mule
forward. 1t was three miles from the
main road to his home. The way CT
fered a hundred spots for ambush. In
some one Of the coverts the assassin
would be lying with cooked rifle to
send a bullet through is heart. It
mattered not which one Death would
come just the same. He might dis
mount and leave the trail, but that
would be cowardice. He might turn
back and reach home by the long cir
cult, but that would be cowardice
again. No! He would go to his death
like man-as his father and grand
father had done before him, as his wife
and children up there in the humble
cabin would wish for him to do. Life
was sweet, but
A tongue of flame, cloud of blue
smoke, the crack of rife at the cor
ner of the great black rock, and the
frightened mule galloped away, leav-
ing a corpse behind on the path-a
man shot through the heart. No one
came out to look at the body. Some
one moved away through the sodden
forest, but there was no one 20 run
after him, no one to catch fleeing
glimpses. 1t was murder from am
bush, they said, and they said nothing
more; no arrest, no trial, no retribu-
ton; just corpse in the path and a
widow and three fatherless children
in the cabin two miles away.