The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-10-31

was that the woman was a maniac. and
was about to attack him, and he prepared
to defend himself. But as she came near
er, stumbling over the rough ground. so
eagerly did she hasten, he saw that she
was weeping and sobbing When she
reached him she fell on her knees and
cried between her sobs:
Are you really and truly Joe Lacoot?
Are you Joe Lacoot of Lambert Lake?
Don't you know me?"
Lacoot looked at the miserable woman,
at her rags and at her face, brown with
exposure, and at her figure, bOny ana
scrawny. In this poor, half-starVed crea-
ture, he could recognize no one he had
ever seen before.
Don't you know me at all?" she cried
again. "Why, I'm Rosie Pelleuer; I'm
really Rosie Pelletier."
Lacoot could scarcely believe the evil
dence of his ears and his eyes.
Rosie Pelletier?" he repeated. Rosie
Sirois?'' he added.
Don't call me that!' she cried. Ellie
won't ever want to see me again. He won't
ever want to call me his wife" and she
fell on her face in paroXysm of weeping.
Lacoot in his amazement scarcely knew
what to do or say. But at last he ven
tured to lift the woman and set her on
log. After some soothing and persuasion
she grew calmer and brokenly tod her
story.
Did you see anything when you were
coming through the woods?" she asked,
shuddering.
II saw some hogs and-nnd'-a great
light breaking in on him-"I saw-why,
Rosie, it can't
That's him." she broke in, "that thing
is Peter Bubeer, and think God has sent
1t on him. But. oh, why has God punish
ed me 500" and again the poor woman fell
to weeping.
.eVas To- tbo+,s ra+ar I9,,baar - she wont
on, land he's been like that more than
year and half. l tried and tried to get
away from here. I'm a wicked woman for
making him that way, but couldn't help
i'll struck him with an AK, and he's been
like that. But 1 was trying to get away,
Joe, and he followed me and choked me
every day. and each time l got away into
the woods he came after me and abused
me and made me go back with him to this
awful place. It's been terrible, Joe, and
how it is that I'm alive I don't know"
Then the poor creature told Lacoot of
the fearful trip in the woods after the
abduction. Bubeer tied her to trees when
he slept. Once he left her for hours and
returned with sacks containing -four and
four young pigs, stolen from a camper All
the night of the abduction She heard her
husband and friends calling, but was pre-
vented from making a sound. Bubeer
coolly informed her, she said, that he pro-
posed to take up his home in the woods
permanently and keep her there with him.
Therefore, the pigs were to be kept alive
and reared. Had not the woman been
strong and healthy French-Canadian girl,
accustomed to hard work and woods life,
she never could have endured the journey.
But when she refused to go further Blu
beer beat her until she rose and staggered
on.
The distance from Lambert lake to the
little pond hidden away in the Dobsis re-
gion is nearly fifty miles. The two were
three weeks making the trip. Bubeer
himself hardly knew where he was going.
He was looking for some lonely spot in
the woods, where pursuit could not over
take him, and where huntsmen and wood
men would NOD be likely to come.
half dozen times he pitched upon some
place that seemed to him secure retreat.
But after remaining few days la each
locality he became uneasy and moved on
When, after much toll. the strangely pair
ed pilgrims had pushed through the thick
growth for miles, and had come to the
shores of the little pond, the man decided
that here was at last the hiding place he
had been looking for So here he made
his camp a rude affair. He planned to
erect a better one ere the winter came.
This work, though, he was never able to
do.
Before he had cut the logs for the camp
the trouble came. From time to time the
woman, driven wild by the acts of her
captor on whom appeals had no effect
whatever, sought to escape into the woods
She had no hope that she could get out
of the wilderness, but death in the woods
seemed preferable to the torment she was
enduring at the camp. Whenever this de-
lirium seized her and she ran into the for
est, Bubeer came running after and fore
ed her to feturn At such times his taunts
a
endure.
One day she fled into the woods after an
especially horrible experience with her
brutal jailer He had allowed her to go
nearly a mile into the forest Then he
tracked her easily and brought her back
TO the camp. When he pushed her into
the little shack and again fell to harass-
ing her she became Infatuated beyond en-
durance AS Bubeer came toward her,
off his guard because she had so often re-
sisted him in vain, she darted past him,
seized the ak standing in the corner and
dealt the ruffian a blow on the head ere
he could turn and face her He fell, and
she thought she had killed him.
But the Frenchman's tough skull with
stood the whack. He lived and the repent
ant woman brought him such food as she
was able to secure. But when, after ne
had lam in the hut for several weeks, he
was at last able to crawl out of doors he
was an idiot HIS singular crOtchet was
that he was pig. He walked on all fouTs,
and he daily went grubblng in the fore :
with the hogs that he had stolen from the
Equatter's sly.
The girl could have left the place al any
time, but she was sufficiently acquainted
with woods life to understand that ventur-
il out into that trackless forest vas orly
a shade less rash than suicide. So she
stayed on and on at the camp, hoping that
at last some hunter or lumberman would
come along that way. She knew how to
make and set traps, and she was able TO
exist after a fashion on rabbits and small
game, and on several occasions she took
Bubeer's rifle and shot deer.
The presence of the hogs at the camp
saved her, for the animals had multiplied,
and she from time to time killed one. She
did this, however, only when pressed to
it by the extremity Of hunger. for the idiot
went into a fury when any assault was
made on the inmates of the sty.
After Lacoot had listened to the story
he fitted the woman out with a pair of
moccasins and helped to make a rude
skirt out Of the blanket he carried. Then
the two, without waiting to interview the
idiot started aWaV through the woods