The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1907-03-22

WOulu not nave reached THIS plact
had it not been for the bowling o.
the dog"
/ saw that she was trembling
and was ready to faint. l caught
her as she reeIed forward and
placed her upon rough bench
that stood in the passage. | went
through the open door into the
main building to obtain help il
anyone should be there-whlch
doubted.
The room | entered presented 8
scene of great confusion. The
floor was covered with overturned
chairs and tables; ashes and dead
Goals from the fireplace were scat.
tered about, but fortunately they
had not ignited the rough punch
cons of which the floor was made.
The day being comparatively warm
there had been no great amout of
fire on the hearth. soon satisfied
myself that the house was entirely
deserted. | returned across the
kitchen and procured some water
with which | bathed her face nm
til consciousness returned. She
was so utterly exhausted that |
feared for a time she would die.
AS knelt beside her | saw that
she was beautiful. There was a
refinement in her features, a SYM
metry and grace in her form that
goes with high breeding and deli
cate nature. When she opened
her eyes, | went out to my horse
and brought my saddle bags where,
the other things, | had
iask>of brandy. After diluting a |
portion of its contents to enable
1er to swallow it, for the spirit
was strong, | gave it to her. She
frank it without protest, but with
evident repugnance. When she
vas sufficiently recovered we went
nto the kitchen, where we found
IN ample supply of roasted venison
md corn bread, which, with some
additions from my own stores, l
et before her, and then left her
or the purpose of exploring the
PREMISES.
The room had first entered was
learly the living room. There
adde's and brides suspended from
arge wooden pegs driven into the
ogs. ] had failed to notice this
yhen / entered the room before;
lso there were several rifles ly-
lg in another corner, evidently l
lmbled down by the earthquake. T,
! glance into the two other rooms I
q that floor convinced me that
ley were used as bedrooms. So
turned my attention to the upper :
DOR, which had suffered most ]
'om the earthquake. The CELL
70 of the rooms on this floor had I
cen broken up and great bales of 7
Tx laces, velvets, broadcloths,
bbons and other rich materials I
I'd fallen from the attic and lay i
altered about. The upper part I
the house had apparently been :
'ed as a storeroom for all kinds +
valuable wares. l felt like Ali r
aba when he found himself in p
e cave of the Forty Thieves. q
! paused from sheer astonish- g
emit. The bowling of the dog G.
intervals echoed drear i ~ g
rough the deserted rooms and 81
ON the sombre woods. What II
d this vast accumulation of val II
.bles in this out-of-th e-way cor ~
II mean9 Where were the own W
81 Here we're costly fabrics a
lich were worth hundreds, per- N
ps thousands of dollars. Where u
d they come froms l was not U
az in reaching the conclusion 10
at | had stumbled upon the 70
of a gang of river pi- q
tes that infested the Mississippi 4
those days but where were W
. menu | suspected they had m
en- scared away from the house ar
the shock that had partially So
it, but there had been w
lple time for their return. Why OF
d they not Gomez This some of Ia