The morning times., 1897-01-19

part of Besneaud's savings and that with
the Frenchtnan's love for coin the bulk Of
the money was in gold and besides, there
were two compartments in the safe he
could not open. y OF until the file had de-
scended again and again into his chest and
he was suffering intense torture did Beg
neaud surrender his gold and silver When
he gave the boys the keys to these compart-
ments few wen-directed blows siIenced
him forever. His surrender of his for
tune had-not saved his life
There were a hundred pounds OF gold
and silver coins, as much as the BOYS
could carry between them. They found
two large sacks in the store filled them
with the money, swung them over their
backs. and, locking the door and throw
ing the key under the house. marched
to their little cabin ON the Boudreaux place,
where the money was buried under neigh
boring tree and grass planted over il.
The boys Were shrewd enough TO know
that il they left at once suspicion would
point To them, so they worked on as il
nothing had happened until the first ex-
element was over When IT had Quilted
down they showed Col. Boudreaux, their
employer, a letter from a man in New
Orleans who had offered them better work
III 1iS SbOFe Oh toulouse street.
The colonel thought it a good advance
for the boys and they went away, openly
and above board, with the good wishes
of all their friends, and without the slight
est suspicion attaching To them, but with
Begne1ud's gold in their little hair trunk
It was after their departure that the
letter they pretended to have receiv-
eel from New orleans fell into the sherifrs
ha baH a lpSt for
haps ostentatiously, on the n,anteIpiece Of
their cabin. An inquiry at the postoffiee
showed that neither OF the boys had re-
ceived a letter at the time they pretended.
When the sheriff came to New Orleans
he looked them up at the Toulouse street
store for an explanation of the letter mat
ter. They had never been there.
These facts gave rise Co serious suspicion
that the boys knew something about the
murder, but 1T was quite another matter
to find them. Tney had apparently diSap-
peared from the face OF the earth. Thou
sands of people mast have met the two boys
during the last nine months, and have Won
| dered at two youngsters travelling around
the world alone and spending money so
| lavishly and recklessly, and 1T seems
I strange that they should never have been
| the sbuject Of police suspicion and arrest.
This was probably due to the fact that
| they went only TO the big cities They
| took trip around the world; they visited
| New York, Brussels, London. Paris, Mex
| leo, San Francisco and half a dozen other
| great cities, and at all they splurged and
lived like princes.
| On Monday last two very ragged boys,
| showing all the signs of suffering poverty,
! presented themselves at Col. Boudreaux' 9
| plantation and asked the colonel to take
| them back to work.
/ They were Ernest and Alexis Blanc and
they explained that they had lost their
| place in New Orleans, had gone TO st.
Louis, and had tramped all tile way from
that city to Lafayette parish, to get back
| TO their little cabin again. Sheriff Brom-
sard had eonfided his suspicious of the two
boys TO Col. Boudreaux, and the latter.
while doubling their guilt, informed the
sheriff of their return. The climax came
earlier than was expected, and il required
bat simple effort ON the part of the sner-
iff TO induce both boys TO tell the entire
story of the murder and of their wander
| ings since.
Why they came back to the scene of their
crime, to hard life of labor, is psychic
problem. No oneever expected toSee them
again, and the sheriff had practically given
up the chase TO him the return to Scott
where they must have been aware that
there was danger, seemed inexplicahle-
You came back to murder Simeon Beg
neaud,'' he said to them, "and get his
money!
"Oh. no." said Alexis, in a tone which
left no doubt that he was telling the truth;
''tiie other man the would speak OF his
victim in no other way save as the other
| many was with us all the time, wherever
we went, whatever we did. We could moi
have killed his BROTHER
AS soon as Sheriff Bromsard got thu
confession from the boys lie hurried them tC
New Orleaus-he would take no chance of a
lyncting for he knew how wrought up tht
people OF Lafayette were over the Beg
neaud murder. They are safe here, bu
their return to Lafayette means death
either by Judge Lynch or the law, unless
Alexis innocent appearance fills "a mob or a
| jury with pity for him.
l Beyond an question. the i,lea OF the mur
i der came to him and his brother as an iii
spiraton from the yelIow-back literature
and the thought of the murder ms hauntet
him ever since, sleeping or waking,
i amid al the pleasures which Bcgneaudi
/ money brought York Sun