The Delta independent., 1896-02-19
CHAPTER Xxx


Tennessee.
CHAPTER Xxx
The one man who seemed to have
the clearcst comprehension of all this
was Hendricks, who, from his retreat
underground, watched by some in
scrutablc process every move that was
made. Gen. Waterson reached Laran
on the 20th of July. lie left New
York just six hours before the police
began to look for him, and he found
that four hundred and fifty of his men
had preceded him to the Laran. Dur
ing his absence the sanitarium had
been burned to the ground. This took
place on the Sth. On the 9th Gen.
Luscombs party had been attacked in
the rear The general had been killed
and his men routed. Those that es-
capped got in at Covington and re-
ported the sanitarium burnt and the
gang gone eastward. In the public
mind this appeared to explain the up
pearance of the regiment in New York
on the 18th.
About ten miles east Of the Laran
snugly perched on the side of wild
glen is solitary Swiss cottage. 1t is
built Of stone and looks down upon a
rugged but beautiful country. 1t is
Just three miles from the town of
Hoxie on a branch of the Tennessee
railroad where there is post Office
and telegraph station. The people in
the town understand that an eastern
literary woman who has an enormous
mail has hired the place on account
of its seclusion and salubrity. She
has O pony and two servants, one
of whom is man, and she comes to
town frequently with her pony TO
mail her letters, get her papers and
meet an occasional visitor from the
east whom she takes back with her.
This literary woman is Mrs. Hen
bricks. In her pretty little boudoir
on the secovd floor she has a telc-
graph instrument built into the wall,
and she communicates constantly with
Hendricks in the Laran by an under
ground wire that has been laid with
great care and expense through the
widest and most unfrequented part
of the intervening country and which
enters the cave through an artcsian
drill that is hidden by four feet of soil.
In fragment of n preserved letter
OF Hendricks he says: "This wire cost
me more trouble and labor than any
thing else. 1t had to be laid at inter
walls after a careful survey in order to
avoid observation, and it had to follow
the unfrequented ways and escape the
possible surface water courses, for if it
had been barred and discovered my
enemies would have had the iron clew
that ran to the heart Of my mystery"
The man servant in this establish
ment is none other than Fcnning. The
room in which he and his companion
toll at their mail is tastefully y furnished
and the windows on the inside are pro-
vided with steel blinds. The two Royal
Dane mastiffs that have already been
seen at the sanitarium lie at full
length on the rug. They can be de-
pended upon to hear football on the
mountain side before it gets within q
hundred feet of the house.
In this comfortable and secluded re-
treat Mrs. Hendricks is at work during
the latter part of July. The mails are
kept guardedly down to n correspond
ence OF necessity and to the daily pa
pers from the large cities.
We can thus see how indifferent Hen
bricks was to the prospects of siege.
movements of n vast organization scat
tered through the country while he
and his immediate forces were safe
from molcstation or disturbance while
their supplies lasted.
On or about the 2sth of July,
Fennirg succeeded in getting Mrs.
Hendricks to send for Miss La
ports assistance. But that young
r 11,
tariIy Fenning suspected the in
fuencc of Stocking. Mrs. Hendricks
was sure of it. Preparations were then
made 81 Fenning's suggestion to send
her at night under strong guard to
meet him somewhere on the route,
when they were interfered with by the
news from Laran. This was on the
3Oth and Hendricks tclcgraphed;
Something of our secret is discovered
by the government. How much, l do
not know. Watch the papers. A
United States gunboat anchored in the
river this n. M, opposite the bayou; a
strong force has been ashore. The
probability is that this is one feature
of a general movement and other forces
are concentrated. 1t is therefore fool
hardy to send Miss Franklin at this
time"
1t was Mrs Hendricks custom to read
off these messages to Fenning while
she was Mt the instrument and he
wrote them down with n pencil in
order to be sure Of their meaning,
burning them Immediately afterward.
They never suspected or ever knew
that they were read by somebody else.
But they were, and it is that curious
fact which enables us to follow the
details of his operations
In the interval between the collision
with Gen. Luscomb and the departure
from Laran of Mrs. Hendricks and
Fenning, Calicot had had ample op-
portunity to cultivate the acquaintance
of Miss Laport, whom he knew only as
Miss Franklin, and as the two young
In 4ls