Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-09-29
@&Ha@ 8@8@@s ] ALICE ef OLD l l VINCENNES < By MAURICE THOMPSON
 N eeayrisht IsoO BOWEN MERRILL COMPANY
1 eeszrsh. IsOO. by s,s BowENMERR1Ll.. cosaRANY
CjHalE.rKIR TTY.
rHxaRkpE OF THE DEsr15oHu
By MAURICE

waS mone noise than fight, So far as results seemed to intlS-
 cate. It was all aboutaa small kme 3eanne of fine brandy which an t1ian of the name of Long Hair had azed and .runs off with at the height of ae caroasa1. He must have been SO erer fhan his pursuers or naturally fteeter, for not o1aerof theInS coaRld catch s4ns or even keep long iny sight of him. Some pistols were emptied while the Gaoe was on, and two or three of the smasnswoRe roundly to having seen Long Hair jump sidewise and stagger, as if lQne Of the shoSs had taken effect But, aIthough the moon was shining, he some way disappeared they could not $ understand just how, far down beside khe river below the fort and the church It was not an uncommon thing for an l Indian to steal what he wanted and in Inost cases light punishment followed eonviction, but it was felt to be cap EEal offense for an Indian or anybody else to rape a demijohn of fine brandy, Especially one sent as a present by a @Fiend in New Orleans to Lieutenant Eovernor Abbott who had until re- kently been the commandant of the post. Every man at the river house recognized and resented the enormity nf Long Hairs crime, and each was for khe moment ready to be his judge and his executioner. He had broken at once every rule of frontier etiquette and every bond of sympathy Nor was Eong Hair ignorant of the danger in Rolved in his daring enterprise. He bad beforehand carefully and stolfdly weighed the conditions, and true to his Indian tilCe had concluded that a lit tie wicker covered bottle of brandy was well worth the risk of his life. Sc De had put himself in condition for a great race by slipping out and getting 1id of his weapons and all surplus weight of clothes.
 This Incident brought the drinking bout at the river house to sudden end. but nothing further came of it that night and no record of it would be found in these pages but for the fact that Long Hair afterward became an important character in the stirring historical drama which had old Vim eennes for it's center of energy.
 Rene de Ronville probably felt him self in bad luck when he arrived at the river house just too late to share in the liquor or to join in chasing the bold thief He listened with interest, however, to the story of Long Hairs capture of the commandant's demfjohn and could not refrain from saying that if he had been present there would have been a quite different result
 ho1 ch haf 11o got to that door, he said, drawing his heavy fintlock pistol and going through the motions of one aiming quickly and firing Indeed, so vigor- 0usly in earnest was he with the pam tonime that he actually did fire, unin- fentionany of course. the ball burying Itself in the doorjamb.
 He was laughed at by those present For being more excited than they who witnessed the whole thing. One of them, leathery faced and grizzled old sinner, leered at him contemptuous1y and said in queer French, with a curious accent caught from long use pf backwoods English:
 Listen how the boy bragg! Ye might think to hear Rene talk that he actually amounted to big pile"
 This parsonage was known to every soul in Vincennes as Oncle Jazon, and when Oncle .Jazon spoke the whole town felt bound to listen.
 "An' how we'll he shoots, too,'' he added. with an intolerable wink "Aimed at the door and hit the post Certainly Long Hair would have been fn great danger. Oh, yes, he'd lave killed Long Hair at the first shot, wouldn't he thoughv
 "All right, Oncle Jazon,' said Rene, laughing and blowing the smoke out of his pistol. "'Twas you, all the same who let Long Hair trot off with the governors brandy; not I. If you could have hit even doorpost it might have been better
 Oncle Jazon took off his cap and looked down into it in way he had when about to say something final
 s'Ventrebleu! did not shoot at Long Hair at all,' he said, speaking slowly s.because the seoundre1 was unarmed He didn't have on even knife, and he was havin' enough to do dodgin' tn, Outlets that the rest of lem were plumpin' at i'm without any compH ments from me to bother i'm more"
 Well" Rene replied, turning away with a laugh, If I'd been scalped by the Indians as you have don't thinl there would be any particular reason why I should wait for an Indian thie to go and arm himself before l ac cepted him as a target
 OncIe Jazon lifted hand involuntar fly and rubbed his scalpless crown then he chuckled with grotesqu' grimace as if the recollection of hay ing his head skinned were the funnies thing ina ginabIe.
 ''When you've killed as many of 'en as Oncle Jazon has," remarked by stander to Rene, you'll not be st hungry for blood, maybe"
 Especially after we've took fifty nin' scalps to pay for yer one" added Oncl Jazon, replacing his cap over the hair less area of his crown.