The Delta independent., 1895-12-04
: 10 be Continued In our neat iss"c.)
CHAPTER /

Dcnch, aged twenty-five. got up about
three o'clock in the morning and, talk
ing eight hundred dollars belonging
to the academy and his fellow-studeuts,
decamped.
The significance of the circumstance
at the time arose from the discovery of
the deliberate and ingenious method
pursued by Bench to accomplish his
purpose. lie had conceived some kind
of u town celebration and induced the
young men to write home for funds.
He also succeeded in getting them to
which according to the books amount
cd to eight hundred and fifty-four dol
lars. lie disappeared from Lexington
and all the efforts of the faculty and
the authorities to trace him failed.
1t is now known that when lie left the
academy he struck across country. to
the Salt river, where he had sliiff in
hiding and presumably a negro con-
fcderate. With characteristic Ken
tucl<y impulse, the young men of the
school held an Indignation meeting
and offered the eight hundred dollars
to anyone who would capture him and
turn him over to the authorities. This
reward put upon his trail several
western deputy sheriffs who tracked
him to Cairo, ILL.,, where it was sus-
pccted that he had changed his boat,
bought ammunition and supplies and
set off down the Mississippi, travelling
generally in the night and hiding in
the bayous during the day.
Deputy Sheriff Col. Abner Pctingill,
OF Frankfort, published in the Louis
vile journal year later n communi-
cation setting forth that his party had
tracked Bench to q bayou, somewhere
between Tiptonville and Fulton, on
the Tennessee shore, where the fugi-
tive had sunk his boat and struck
through the wild tract of country cx-
tending to what is known rs the "Iligh-
land Rim" in Henderson county. This
communication is curious in one state
ment. 1t says: I'VE discovered, after
much tedious searching, the sunken
boat and then struck his trail in the
woods. We had not followed it far be.
fore we came to the conclusion that he
was accompanied by woman"
Col. Petingill then states that it was
his belief and the belief of his party
that Bench met with an accident some
where on the Rim, for all traces of him
disappeared, and after camping out for
two weeks in the wilderness and dis
covering no new trail the party re-
turned.
The fact is Bench had accidentally
discovered the Laran cave.
In his endeavor to escape from his
pursuers, he had struck straight up the
rim and in jumping from one of the
npturned cretaceous strata he had
landed upon depression which gave
way beneath his weight and he fell
pcrpendicularly into a crevicc twelve
feet deep. This crevice has since be-
come famous as the Laran portal.
At its bottom he discovered the de-
scent which led to the arena and hav-
ing exploited the place, he and his
companion lived there until the follow
ing winter. AS soon as he felt salts
fed that the search was given over. he
sent the woman out for supplies and
built brush house over the opening
to conceal it from the negroes who
brought them game and provisions.
They must have remained in and
about the Laran cave very nearly three
months.
In that time Bench made a very
thorough investigation of it and pre-
pared maps and Typographical dia-
grams of the surrounding country.
Some Of these drawings may now be
seen at the Government museum at
Rock Island, and, considering the rude
means ut Bench's command, they are
singularly careful and accurate speci-
mems of cartography.
In those three months Bench had
conceived and worked out one of the
most astounding and gigantic schemes
with which the history OF audacity and
indomitable will makes us acquainted.
CHAPTER IL
He is not heard of again until five
years have elapsed, and the second
event of which it is necessary briefly
to make mention here occurred exact
ly three months before he came to the
surface in the furthcrance of his vast
project.
In the winter of 1s- occurred the
revolution in Venezuela known as tho
Vargas rebellion. A Spanish bark,
the Valencia, carrying arms and sup
plies for the insurgents which had been
bought in England, encountered q
ncaVy storm while OFT the Gulf of Mar
acabo. and springing n leak ran off
past Point Gallinas, and the captain,
in order to relieve his craft, threw over
ut 1ood-tidc two four-inch breech-
loadinp riNed steel runs. nt y point
called the Bahiata Bank. The mate of
this vessel claimed to be an American
and when the Valencia was captured
two days later he managed to escape
by connivance Of the authorities and
went straight to New Orleans 1t is
supposed that he met Bench there. At
all events, he went back to Caracas as
soon as the revolution was over and is
known to have bought up, on some
plea or other, the shells and ammuni-
tion originally shipped with the guns
that were lost and for which the, gov
ernmcnt had no use.
The guns, however, were not lost.
They lay in plain sight on the Bahiata