The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-12-17

phetic? he asked himself. Was he losing nerve? There was no way out of this thing. The only salvation lay in watching, watching, watching, in
 staring at the shanty over wonder un-
 til his protruding eyes burned in their
 sockets. The slightest laxity of his vigilance meant death.
 Duel in the Darkness.
 For nearly an hour the storm King ed his vengeance on the forest while
 great volume of water turned the
 dry pine floor into a swampy quagmire. As suddenly as 1t had come up the
 rain ceased. The Storm King was sat | lated and timidly a pale. shy moon stole out, but as if affrighted quickly
 hid her face from sight as she peered | through the trees and saw the stark. still form in front of the cabin door. For the next half hour there was again | perfect silence, the Caucasian be- hind the tree and the African in- trenched in the cabin each playing the
 game that had for its goal-death. About 3 o'clock in the morning Beau forts strained ears heard a noise the creaking of a door in the rear of the | cabin. Dimly he saw figure steal from behind the cabin. Once more the Colt began sending leaden hail through the night. Evidently the figure was slipping from tree to tree, and the
 messengers of Death sent by Beaufort
 were harmless. Further and further
 away through the forest he could hear
 faint sound, a rustling of leaves as
 of a body making its way cautiously through the woods For another half hour he waited. There was no sound.
 Cautiously he slipped from the pro- tecting tree to the open. flash of fire came from the cabin. Beauforts hot rarfth h balls from the rifle that the negro was pumping with deadly, frenzied swift
 ness. With hardly a gasp Beaufort sank down at the foot of the tree that had held him safe all during the long, terrible night He had forgot
 ten entirely the woman in the cabin. thinking only of the copper colored boast he was trying to kill. The wo-
 man had slipped out of the rear of the shanty and made off through the trees. The man stayed behind and watched
 the tree with a cunning that was des- peratc. The ruse was successful and
 poor Beaufort had gone to his death. Again came the hoot of the owl.
 There were two dead bodies stretched
 in front of the cabin in the heart of the pine forest.
 The fitfuI light of the coming dawn
 was beginning to sift through the trees. Birds were beginning to twit- ter among the branches of the trees
 that had been mute witnesses of the tragedy of that stormy October night. There was no longer any cause for
 caution or secrecy Tho negro in the
 cabin saw his nights work lying on the ground. He had been in that sec ton long enough to know that in the wilds justice was swift and sure with
 no time lost in asking questions. If he was caught anywhere in that sec tion when those bodies were found he
 know that his death was certain. It
 was scarcely 4 o'clock when he stepped from the shanty, gave careless glance at the two bodies, and walked
 through the woods to join the woman
 at the meeting place agreed upon.
 So began In this Florida forest a career of crime that for four years
 made the swamps of South Alabama ring with the reports of firearms. made women pray for the safety of their husbands and sons and sweethearts;
 made widows mourn the death of their husband and orphans mourn the loss
 of fathers. And all because of the re- fusal of a negro to pay the Florida
 county tax on a Winchester rifle. In less than a week after the Bluff Springs murder Louisville and Nash vile freight train was robbed. With a frequency that became monotonous
 to the officials of the railroad other robberies took place. To vary things bit the bandit footed several depots
 and one or two country sto-es came ] in for a share of attention.
 Superintendent Mckinney and Tom