The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1904-04-07


walking slowly, bending far over, their
eyes fixed on the ground. Suddenly
one Of them stood erect and tossed his
arms in the air and shouted loudly.
Other men ran to him, and another far
down the track repeated the shout and
the gesture to another far in his rear.
This man took it up and shouted and
waved to fourth man, and 50 they
passed the signal back to town. There
came almost Immediately three long,
loud whistles from a mill near the sta
ton, and the embankment grew black
with people pouring out from town,
while the searchers came running from
the fields and woods and underbrush
on both sides of the railway.
Briscoe began to walk on toward the
embankment.
The track lay level and straight, not
dfmming in the middle distances, the
rails converging to points both north
west and southeast in the clean washed
air like examples of perspective in
child's drawing book. About seventy
miles to the west and north lay Rouen.
In the same direction, nearly six miles
from where the signal was given, the
track was crossed by a road leading
directly south to Six Crossroads.
The embankment had been newly
ballasted with sand. What had been
discovered was a broad brown stain in
the sand on the south slope near the
top. There were smaller stains above
and below, none beyond it to left or
right, and there were many deep foot
prints in the sand. Men were exam
lining the place excitedly, talking and
gesticulating. It was Lige Willetts
who had found it. His horse was
tethered to fence near by at the end
Of lane through a cornfeld Jared
Wiley, the deputy sheriff, was talking
to group near the stain, explaining.
"You see, them two must have
knowed about the o'clock freight and
that it was to stop here to take on the
empty lumber cars. don't know how
they knowed it, but they did It was
this way: When they got out the win
dow they beat through the storm
straight for this side track. At the
same time Mr.. Harkless leaves Bris-
GOES, goin' west. 1t begins to rain.
He cuts across to the railroad to have
q sure fOotin' and strikin' for the
deepO for shelter-near place as any,
except Briscoe's, where he's said good
night already, and prob'ly don't wish
to go back, fear of givin' trouble or
keepin' 'em up. Anybody can under
stand that. He comes along and gets
to where we are precisely at the time
they do, them comm from town, him
strikin' for it. They run right into
each other. That's what happened
They recognized him and raised up
on him and let him have it. What they
done it with don't know. We took
everything in that line off Of 'em.
Prob'ly used railroad iron, and what
they done with him afterward we don't
know, but we will by night They'll
sweat it out Of 'em up at Rouen when
they get EN-
II reckon maybe some of us might
help" remarked Mr.. Watts refectively.
Jim Bardlock swore violent oath.
''That's the talk!' he shouted. EFF I
amt the first man of this crowd to set
my foot in Roowun and first to beat in
that Jail door Pm not town marshal
Of Plattville, county Of Carlow, state
of Indiana, and the Lord have mercy
on our s0uls!'
Tom Martin looked at the brown
stain and quickly turned away. Then
he went back slowly to the village.
On the way he passed Warren Smith.
''Is it 500" asked the lawyer.
Martin answered with dry throat.
He looked out over the sunlit fields
and swallowed once or twice. Eyes,
it's so. There's good deal of it there.
Little more than boy he was" The
old fellow passed his seamy hand over
his eyes without concealment. ''Peter
amt very bright sometimes, it seems
to me-" he added brokenly; Overlook
Bodeffer and Fisbee and me, and all
Of us old husks, and-and"-he gulp-
ed suddenly, then fnished-"and act
the fool and take boy that's the best
we had. I wish the Almighty would
take Peter off the gate. He amt fit
fer it,
When the attorney reached the spot
where the crowd was thickest, way
was made for him. The old colored
man, Xenophon, approached at the
same time, leaning on a hickory stick
and bent very far over, one hand rest
Ing on his hip as ii to ease a rusty
Joint. The negroes age was an incentive
to fable. From his appearance he
might have known the prophets, and he
wore that hoary look of unearthly wis
dom which many decades of super
stitious experience sometimes give to
members Of his race His face, so tor
tured with wrinkles that it might have
been made of innumerable black
threads woven together, was living
mask of the mystery of his blood.
Harkless had once said that Uncle
Xen0ph0n had visited heaven before
swedenborg and hell before Dante. To-
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