Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1899-02-18
CHAPTER XXI.

will be admitted that his experience
during the previous night was of a try
ing nature. His rasping trials continued.
1t was not to be supposed that the
fugitive believed to be sleeping up
stairs would fire upon an enemy with
out warning, and therefore Cy's ap-
proach to the cabin was unhesitating,
though made with caution. AS the two
stepped across the threshold the white
man said in low voice:
$50 up the ladder and tell Hank l
want to speak with him."
eyes, sah,' replied Pete, promptly
obeying. 1t required but a few steps
when his head appeared through the
opening. One glance was sufficient
Turning his frightened face toward the
veteran below, he gasped:
''He amt here. "
"WhatW thundered Walters. Come
down and let me see for myself"
The trembling negro descended, and
the other recklessly climbed the rounds.
The next second he saw that Pete had
spoken the truth. Down he came, and
in his most dangerous mood.
Say your prayers, he said with
fearful significance. "I'll give you five
minutes and no more"
He stepped back with his Winchester
partly raised. He meant all he said.
"Marse Cy, if proves to yo' dat dat
man amt Hank Boyer, how will dat
do?'
but you can't do it unless you pro-
duce him before me, and you can't do
that
1t was now a question of life and
death, and the quaking African told the
secret which until then had been locked
i'll his breast. All the time he was talk
ing the grim ex-guerrilla kept his gilt
tering eyes upon the dusky counte-
nance, as if he would pierce him through.
Not until the brief story was told did
he lower his gun. The action showed
that Pete had saved his life.
"We must find him." was the COM
ment of Cy. Lets go"
With no definite idea of whittier they
should direct their steps, they followed
the path to the creek, the intention of
Cy Walters being to meet his two
friends and make known the astounding
story he had just heard. Arrived there,
the missing dugout revealed my method
of flight.
"This knocks out all the bloodhounds
i'll the country" remarked the veteran.
"NOne of them can trail him through
the water, and has he gone up or down
stream?"
There was no way of deciding.
"You may go up the creek, and l II
follow it down He can't be fur off. "
On the point of separating, Pete said:
"Marse Cy, what l jes' tole yo' am
secret, yo' know"
"Of course, if you wish it to be so. !"
Deed 1 do. It'll sabe me lots of
trouble"
"All right off with YOU" And they
parted company.
The foregoing shows the injustice
done to Pete by my suspicious. He had
never had any intention of betraying
me, and played the part of friend
from the first, but his welfare had be-
come involved with my own in an ex-
traordinary manner, and his lips were
held mute when he would have loved
to speak. 1t required the extremity of
mortal peril to unseal them.
| conceded too much to his sagacity
when | credited him with discovering
in the faint star gleam that which es-
capped others equally clear sighted un-
der the glare of the lamp at the inn. 1t
was natural that when, from my hiding
place pnder the bank in the dugout,
saw Cy Walters steathily searching for
me, should neglect no precaution to
elude his gaze.
Meantime, with the advance of morn
ing, the vigilantes began gathering at
the inn in Aldine, clamorous to COM
plete the entertainment of which they
We're robbed on the preceding evening
Learning Of the startling proceedings
i'll the early hours-though, be it re-
membered, the agency of Miss Mansley
i'll the business was never suspected
they set out for Black Man swamp, ac-
companied by the most ferocious blood
hound fO1 miles around.
And something also happened to that
brute which eliminated him as factor
i'll the solution of the problem.
1t was not long after this that what
/ ihSy pO NuiASi oi auJOuihCu hioSoihS Va
the man hunters took place in the depths
| OF the swamp, near the creek which
had played an important part in the Gu
| rious incidents. Cy Walters was pres
ent, as We're Gabe Horner and the owner
of the second hound that had departed
this life. To express it mildly, vein of
dissatisfaction ran through the proceed
| ings.
The proposition was made for several
members of the party to go back and
! procure more dogs.
I'm opposed to that" called ont
Gabe, who was infuriated by the loss of
his own animal. "Hank has already
killed two of the best hounds in the
country, and he'll shoot every one we
send after him. We don't need 'em."
"How shall we work it, them" de-
manded the owner of the last defunct.
"The swamp is so big that he can hide
in it for a month"
"He hain't got the ammunition, ex-
| planned Archie Hunter, who grimly rub
bed it into himself by explaining that
the fugitive had stolen his pistol, but
had no cartridges with him.
| "He has used most of the charges