The Starkville news. (Starkville, Miss.) 1902-1960, 1903-08-14

waking the echoes or the coming night
with his deep-throated bay, which an.
nounced that he still held the trail
and it was growing warm. Tense with
the eagerness of the quest, they fol-
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
a gain 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
look writ by horror and trepidation.
which to the superficial might appear
the look of guilt itself. Each suspect
ed his neighbor and felt himself sus-
pected. Vain in that universal uneasi-
ness to seek to read the really guilty
one. Nothing to do but to follow on
this everything trial, around and around
until the end.
Back a third time to Rose Gable, the
attendant followers now heightened to
trailing que, as the dog pressed more
eagerly forward, and the more infirm
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-
liable hound. was emerging from the
gap in the hedge. The man holding the
leash stumbled and the dog, thrown
forward by his own weight. overraD
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 of
Rose Gable. back across the lawn. and
with snarl of rage the great beast
tore itself free from the restraining
hand that held him and sprang at the
throat of Jasper Downes.
'And the sentence of the court is
| where you have been confined and be
kept there until the Goth 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
influence of the impressive scene in
which they had just played part.
"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
| 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
Rose Gable tragedy had thrown them.
For Jasper Downes had lived all his
| life amongst them, beloved for his
| gentle nature.
"The human heart is curious puz-
| zle," said Uncle Amos. "There's never
any telling what anbodyll do. You
| all know how Jasper loved his half
brother. and how he took that broth
| er's going to the bad to heart. OF
| course he thought it was the wife's
fault, and when he saw her living re-
spected by the community, happy ap-
narently, while his mothers son. the
man he loved better than he loved his
! life. was an outcast and drunkard, he
| lost his head"