The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-05-14
HOW TALE OF BLOODSHED
 CAUSED BOLD ENTERPRISE


 Reports were received at police head quarters about 2 o'clock Sunday morning that a gory state of affairs existed some where on the Cahaba road in Shades val ley, a few miles from town. An eye wit ness had seen one dead man in the road had seen a little later two women who were frightfully cut. This witness corrobo- rated the sight of his own eyes, describing with gruesome particularly the half-sev- cred trunk of the dead man.
 The unities of time and place in the arrative were utterly disregarded, the man seeing the corpse relating that he saw the body in the road just minute or two befores and adding in the next breath that he was then 'phoning from a house five miles distant from the scene oI the tragedy. Only the speed of a John Gilpin could explain the discrepancy But be that as it may, the newspaper man. ever on the quest for something even when it's nothing, and a minion of the law struck tffe mountain trail post haste in A dead wagon, an unromantic vehicle, but well beftting the hour and the mis- sion. Their hair-trigger fingers were ready to rob Diamond Dick of his glory.
 Besides these dauntless heroes there rode two ordinary mortals, ordinary Tn themselves, but catching some faint gleam of glory from the association in the en- terprise One was utilized for the nun dane purpose of driving and the other the semi-heroic position of asserting not only the already dead but those that might re- sist the hair trigger All went as smooth as a dime novel.
 The heroes surmounted all obstacles. Even Red mountain in their mental vision. stretched to embrace things he roic. was nothing more than hole hill. and into the valley beyond rode the press and the law. Twas that dark hour just hefore dawn. The road stretched before them in the blur, 'dimly parting the m finite darkness on either side. A feathery lieht1ess moon was somewhere through the trees. The lantern at the head of the
 
 rear end of the horses and made spooky things out on the sides of the road among the trees. Broken logs and rocKs' very yuuch in the similitude of dead men, caught the flickering rays or the lantern on6 nassed rapidly in panoramic review The horses were simply eating up the road with their speed.
 All eyes eagerly scanned the darkness ahead for the original dead man, ana all senses were keenly alert for the i've oros The minion of the law sat grimly ouaitine the hour of fate, but the news naner mans thought ran to tales of ann hush. His imagination got busy and peo- pled the menacing darkness with lawless mountaineers behind every tree. Breatnitt county, Ky, began to figure In ms meh- tal processes Headlines of his paper grew large in his fancy, telling or his murder at the hands of the feudsts
 Suddenly there was halt; man was walking toward them just ahead The man came close up alongside the wheel in the light of the lantern He was hat less. hair matted, red hair, was Wild eyed. and had red dirt on his face. His chest was exposed. and one "gallus' held nm the few remaining clothes he wore, and in his hand there gleamed Knife.
 The trained eye of the officer may nave seen something else, but to the uncer- tain imagination of the press representa- tive. the vision was nothing else than the dead man coming to meet them. It was the walking red death itself. The figure in the light made by the lantern began to gesticulate wildly with the knife. dancing the devils own dervish- This is not news any how, thought the news man. but for several minutes he sat still. Then although with a superhuman effort he gripped his nerves He bounded over the other side of the dashboard to- ward the back of the wagon. At the same instant the dancing dead man start cd in that direction from the other side.
 Dawn was coming. The first morning ouiver was passing through the trees, and the odor of the woods was sweet, said inc officer of the law. There was nothing to mar the holy hush and beauty of the scene. save. faint noise and cloud of dust down the road.