The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1898-12-03

somebody coming i'm through the dark
and closing the door hastily behind him.
Whoever 1t was was noiseless after clos
Ing the door, and sang out to the other
fellows to know If It was one Of them.
only heard for answer the kind OF
gentle snore which might or might not
be assumed. $.45
In five minutes after that there was
a. noise Of excited Voices outside, and
the farmer, with lantern, and two big
kafhrs with another Boer, and a boy of
fourteen or fifteen, rushed into the room
and fell upon us. In the half-awakened
condition was In could form no notion
or what was wrong, but fought them or
pretty furiously. The other fellows. how
ever, seemed to have their wits and did
not tight but began to exp5stulate in a
mild and surprised sort of way. The
men bound al three Of us with hide
thongs, and were rough about it, too
seeming terribly excited and angry Then
| the kafhrs lifted us up and bore US in to
the sitting room where we had supped.
You can imagine I jumped when saw
| tnere ON the floor, propped I'm the arms
OF woman, a big Zulu, bleeding from a
great cash in the chest. We were hauled
In front OF the man and the farmer bent
over him and seemed entreating and COM
| manding him to look at us, to recog-
nize u.s. but nothing could be understood
from the poor wretch's wandering looks.
He gasped once or twice and fell back
dead, and then the Kaffirs gave q howl
and seemed ready to make short work OF
US. The farmer and the other Boer
ordered them back. and the Dutchmen
began to Jabber away at terrible rate
asked my companions what the matter
was, but they simply shrugged their
shoulders and remained silent. was get
| ting my wits back by this time, and,
When remembered the man slipping into
the barn i'm the darkness and not answer
Ing me when spoke, I was filled with a
,horrid suspicion, and almost unconsciously
drew or from the other two and stood
apart from them
line Boers began questioning US, but al
ways speaking taal, so that T was kept
IN impatient ignorance Of the subject
matter, until the farmer, at last noticing
mat did not seem to understand, spoke
TO me in Enlish. He asked me who T
was and how long had known the 9th
ers. told him, and asked him to look
at my pocketbook for papers showing who
was. That mattered nothing In the
frst place, doubt if he could read Eng
ilsh. though he spoke 1t fairly well; and.
IN the second, If l had been travelling with
passports from all the crowned heads of
Europe, they would have meant nothing
to his mind. III had had pocket Bible
he might have been more favorably i'm
pressed-and perhaps not professionally
SO. However, he told me what the mat
ter was. No one slept in the sitting room
and It seemed that the farmer had been
reused from his sleep In another chamber
by cry in the narlor. When he ran in
he found the Kaffir wounded and speech
less. The only evidence of what had oc-
CURED was the fact that those two dia-
monds had noticed at supper were miss
Ing. The presumption was that the kaftir
had seen some one entering the house
and was slain in defending his masters
property. You may think it strange that
two such valuable stones should be left
lying loose, but the ,Boer, remember, only
cares for land. Gold and diamonds are
to him offensive products, which bring the
greedy Uitlanders to swarm upon his
peaceful country, and 1t Is quite conceiv-
able that the old farmer, having pro-
cured these by chance, thought little Of
charged with the affair would have been
different, but there was murder done.
and, as the Beers told us again and again,
eye for eye, tooth for tooth and life for
ltfe,' was the law.
"'They searched us and found no dia-
monds, and, save my own claspknife,
clean, save for tobacco stains, no weap-
on. I remembered that one of my COM
panions had used big-bladed knife at
our meal on the veldt, but said nothing.
Then they consulted together, and then
they kneeled down and the old man pray
ed. After that the farmer spoke to us
again, and said that 1t was a moral GER
tainty that one of US had done this thing
and that the others knew of 1t. He said
very calmly that he wanted only one life,
and begged the two innocent ones to give
up the guilty party turned white when
realized that that Boer had no inten-
ton OF turning us over to the authorities,
before whom I could have made for my
self a god case, but was actually going to
avenge his dead servant on the spot. II
had known I should most quickly have
pointed out. the murderer. but L had no
more proof than the farmer himself. The
other two kept silent, almost apathetic.
Once caught an angy, reproachfui look
from one man at his chrm, but that was
all the evidence had that they knew
more than did. - -. ~ I
AT last they prayed again, and after
more consultation told us to make our
peace, for we should all three be shot in
the morning, lest the guilty one should
escape At that found words. and 1t
Is wonderful how many good, earnest,
.forcible words a man can and in such a
case. / told them knew no more about
the murder than they did. and solemnlv
denounced themselves a. murderers 4
they$did such asthing. pleaded hard Tor 1
ny life, for felt sure they would do what 4
they said. SO simple, unaffected and si..-
cere was their conviction that they had
a perfect right 10 execute Justice. My 4
words had weight and they wavered, and
once\a1Ore the consultations and prayers
began, and were continued ali night
When dawn came we were led out, and
the farmer told US in English what they
had decided to do. I was sDeechless
when heard the plan, but the other Two,
who had remained stolid all night, now
that the thing was settled broke into q
torrent Of hideous oaths They simply
raved and foamed, but the Beers were
quite calm. Said the Boer, in effect: he
venge is the Lords and justice is his. He
will see that it Is done. We cannot tell
which of you is guilty OF ,b:oodshedding.
but one OF you Is. He. will point out ethe
one and in his hands be it, Fanatics
superstitious? That old chap and his
friend were survivals Of the middle ages.
They were going to give us the trial by
ordeal-no less.
"They made their unique preparations.
A stretch of plain spread for five or six
hundred yards from the farmhouse to q
downward slope. Two hundred yards
from the door stood a solitary big bush,
q kind Of scrub oak. The Boer made us
draw straws. The longest strawlolder
was to start first and run to- that bush.
when he would be fired on and If he were
unhit by the time he reached the ooe
which would hide him, he could go his
way in peace: So the second; so the thi.d
II the first were killed, or the second,
the Lord, SO they solemnly claimed. had
pointed out the murderer, and the others, |
or other, might depart unframed. We
protested, as men, save at q lynching,
never protested before for. we all knew
what dead shots these Beers are. but the
patriarch had made up his mind and wei
talked uselessly. ss@
Il The boy was brought out and ar fle
was given to him. The farmer explainf I
that he waa young and an N ascertain shot.