The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1908-08-07
q THE MARK -
1 OF THE CRUTCH. (
sa'SS 81 MARY o.
0@s KYLE DALLAS. ss@'
>'!..lM..!

accounted very eccentric, but when
he adopted MaIoRe's boy people
thought that HIS eccentricity amount
ed to madness. The Malones we're
bad lot, and this boy was not, as far
as any one knew, better than any
other Of the family. Moreover, he
had fallen from tree which he was
robbing of peaches in his youth, and
crippled himself so that he must al
ways walk with crutcn. What did
old Adam want Of him? But Adam
cared nothing for criticism; he knew
that no one ever pleased all the world
yet, and when his friends prophesied
thai he would be sorry he laughed in
their faces. Old Malone was dead,
two Of the boys were in jail, one gone
away upon voyage. He had found
Dan deserted in the miserable hut
they had inhabited, friendless, with
no one to help him to such work as
he could do, and he had taken him
home.
There could not be a better boy"
old Adam said, and after Dan had
been with him two years he was still
so much Of this opinion that he made
a will in his favor Dan Malone, the
old ruffian's lame boy, had come to
be the prospective heir Of the largest
estate in the place.
He was gentle looking boy, who
grew refined in manner and learned
rapidly, but even when he had come
to be one-and-twenty people were
still prejudiced against him. Adams
venture might turn out well, but they
dolbted it.
At last something happened that
seeIled to provo that they were all
righ'.
Oil Adam was very fond OF fishing.
Some ines he spent long days beside
cert,in trout stream, and often his
boy, 81 he called Dan was with him,
but on summer day Dan was not
well anil Adam went out alone. The
hired mon was chopping wood in an
other direction, and the old woman
who washed and cooked kept to her
kitchen. But about o'clock that
evening Ian, very pale and with a
strange look in his eyes, came into
neighbours house.
Il came because l wanted help"
he said. "Mr. Hardburn went away
to fish this morning. was sick. |
grow giddy when ! try to stand.
can't go after him, and he's not home
yet. wanted Simon to go, but he
says his masGer is old enough to take
care of himself. and has probably
gone somewhere to supper But
that's not like Mr. Hardburn; besides
Re had on his fishing hat and linen
jacket. ! wish some one would do
what find / am unable to do. I'm
alarmed-very much alarmed"
The neighbors were kind. The
men started out for the trout stream,
and the women comforted Dan, tell
ing him that good news would soon
come; that 1t was too cool for sun
stroke, and that the stream was too
shallow to be dangerous. But the
young man sat paling and shivering,
partly with illness and partly with
Onxiety, until news came. 1t was the
worst news possible. Mr.. Hardburn
had been found dead, shot through
the head. A pistol lay near him, and
his pockets were turned inside out,
and his watch was gone.
When Dan heard the news he
tainted away, and for awhile every
one sympathized with him. But soon
the tide turned.
Detectives came down from the city
and made explorations and inquiries.
The watch was found in hollow tree
and all along the soft wood path were
very peculiar footsteps. They traced
them from the woods to the gate of
the old mans home; the mark of a
shoe, and where the other shoe print,
should have been, puncture. Some
one has been here who walked with a
crutch was the conclusion.
In the whole village was but one
who used crutch-young Dan Ma
lone. The clouds of suspicion began
to gather. Dan declared that he had
been i'll in bed all day, but Simon, the
man, knew nothing Of Dams where
abouts from the time he left home
until he returned and Betty only
knew that he had not come home to
dinner. The pistol with which Mr..
Hardburn had been murdered was
one that was always kept in his own
dining room. And finally Dan, and
no other, had an object to attain by
the old mans death
Poor Dan was arrested, and his
agony was very great
What do they think of me?" he
cried. rs money anything in COM
parison with friend such as l have
lost? l had all WANTED He was