Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-07-30

awed by the thing they hadcome to do standing in the shadow of this house of death. Guided by the doctor and Uncle Amos, the foreman, grasping the nail-stuGded leather collar of the dog, led him to the clump of ilacs. raised his heavy muzzle and laid it along the broken stalk. Mute sur- prise in the beasts eyes only. Fur ther along, above the fracture. An eager sniffing told that it understood, that. it had the scent.
 Dropped to all fours, the dog sniffed the ground eagerly, ran hither and ithither, circled around the lilac bush, then, tossing its head high, with long deep-chestcd bay, it laid its muzzle once more to the ground, and, drag ging the quarryman who held it with a stout leathern thong, it set off across the lawn. It was on the trail
 l And those who heard, thrilled with the savage music of that bay, which .awoke in their own breasts the latent savagery of the human beast. Their pulses beat to faster measure, the righteous indignation of an outraged neighborhood, for the moment gave place to the fierce exultation of the hunters of wild beasts. Primeval man awoke in them and, soorning the: chas- tening effects of centuries, rejoiced in the chase.
 Eagerly the dog tugged at his collar, as eagerly the crowd of young and old pressed in its wake. Yes, here was where he got through the hedge. It could be seen, plainly, the gap, now that the dog pointed the way. To the right along the lane as far as the stile; over this and across the fields by the footpath to the parsonage, straight on into the village. What stranger had passed through that day? Eagerly they asked each other the question. None could answer it. And the won- der grew as step by step the keen scented dog tracked the footsteps of this unknown fugitive, followed them into the various familiar places in the village, the store, the blacksmith shop, the post office. Men looked at each other with wonder and suspicion. What did it mean? Eagerly the dog strained at his lessh; quicker and ever quicker he dragged his keeper along. Again into the fields, back again into the village, then along the road, back to the house of death. Un- erringly, without moments hesita- tion, the great beast rugged along, waking the echoes of the coming night with his deep-throated bay, which an- nounced that he still held the trail and it was growing warm. Tense with !. r4 AJo fo1 lowed the hurrying dog, shrinking each from the other in the nameless suspicion fast growing in every breast.
 Arrived at the lawn before the house, the hound turned promptly toward the lilac bush. But it did not go quite to it. At point some dozen feet short of the shrub it turned off and headed again across the lawn toward the gap in the hedge. Again to the right, along the lane, over the stile, across the fields. The dog was tracking the track ing party. Among those who followed this hunt for a man was the hunted man himself. Lifelong friends eyed each other askance; in each face was a look writ by horror and trepidation, which to the superficial might appear the look of gailt ltitsef. Each suspect ed. his .neighbor and felt himself sus. pected. Vain in that universal uneasi- ness seek to read the really guilty one. Nothing to do but to follow on this overlying trial, around and around until the. end.
 Back third time to Rose Gable, the attendant followers now heightened to ha Irr asI IYrar, eagerly forward, and the more infrm among the followers lost ground, un- able to keep up, though none dreamed of dropping out. Painting, nearly over come, a little group brought up the rear, entering the grounds just as the head of the party, led by the indom. litable hound, was emerging from the gap in the hedge. The man holding the leash stumbled and the dog, thrown forward by his own weight, overran the scent and for a moment was al fault. He had it again in a second however, and with bay of rejoicing resumed the tracking, but in the other direction. Back again to the gate o1 Rose Gable, back across the lawn, and with a snarl of rage the great beast tore lISClI LLCC HULL tuC ACSUI d1Alu hand that held him and sprang at the throat If Jasper Downes.
 And the sentence of the court is that you be taken back to the place l where you have been confined and be kept there until the 29th of March when you shall be hanged by the neck ] until you be dead. And may God have mercy on your soul.'
 The famous trial was over at last and the villagers filed out of the court room, silent and awed; still under the 1 influence of the impressive scene in which they had just played apart:
 s'Who'd we thought it? Jasper Downes, of all men! Why, I'd most as soon we believed it of myself" ] It was Homer Cough who spoke to 1 Uncle Amos, but he voiced the thought of the countryside, which had not yet recovered from the amazement into | which the unexpected climax of the