Amador ledger., 1910-02-18
A BLACK HAND LETTER
Rv N. QUAD.
W. ".V(2ss
[copyrlght, 1910. by Associated Literary
Press.1


Press.l
Major Cleveland, retired, was in the
wrong Of 1t. He had permitted and
tacitly encouraged young Mr.. Herbert
to visit the house and listen to his war
stories and fall In love with his daugh-
ter Janet, and then when he asked for
her hand he had drawn himself stiffly
up and replied.
1T cannot be. sir! I am Of the army,
sir, and. though retired on half pay by
a grateful country, once of the army
always Of the army. My dearest hope
is for Janet to marry a colonel In ac-
tive service. shall speak to her at
once. sir-at once"
Janet" the major said the next day
to his daughter, "there must be no
more of this nonsense between you
and young Herbert"
That was ALL The major congratu-
lated himself that his order would be
obeyed. and Miss Janet put on look
and assumed the attitude Of broken
hearted girl not long for this world
l. nc luOLuCE DCCuuC mOlllCu ulu DlO-
tested, and the major became little
bit anxious and talked about spring
tonics, though he had no idea Of coun-
his order. All might have
gone well IL the grocer who supplied
the house hadn't called his delivery
boy a slouch and a lazybones and II
the said boy hadn't fired up and quit
his job. Another took his place just as
Miss Janet wanted to send note to
her lover real bad. The change OF
boys perplexed her for a moment, and
she hadn't time to go into explanations
further than to hand him the missive
and 10 cents and mention Mr.. Herbert.
The boy grinned and nodded. and the
wagon ratified away. and ten minutes
later he was perusing. the letter. His
name happened to be Herbert. and he
to be a vain boy. and he fur
ther happened to believe that MISS
Janet had got struck on him. 1t was
a proud moment for him, for he al
ready had another girl on the string.
She worked in a shirt factory, and
she wasn't tony girl. but he loved
her. He was also jealous Of her, and
now was his chance to get even.
Mr.. Herbert did not get the note In
tended for him; Miss Janet did not get
a reply as expected; the mother saw
new cause to believe that her daughter
was not long for this world. and the
major sighed and wished that some
one would come in and listen to his
war stories. That grocer's boy had
brought butter. eggs and potatoes, but
he had left a load of carking care be-
hind him. Next morning brought
something like a sudden thunderclap
Miss Janet received letter mailed at
the village postoffice the night previ-
GUS. 1t was ill spelled and was not
capitalized or punctuated at all. IL
was signed ''Black Ham," and 1t con-
tained some dire and awful threats
If she did not change her course she
would be shot. stabbed, dubbed, boiled
in oil and die many other ways IL
was to be a first and last warning. and
there were many ''bewares" In II.
Janet was frightened, her mother was
more SO, and the major swore by the
bloody sword he had used at Gettys-
burg that he would get at the bottom
of the mystery If he had to call out
the entire army Of the United States.
The village marshal was consulted,
and he struck clew. That clew led
to a tin peddler. who tainted away
when arrested Other 'clews were
struck and followed. and before night
of the first day five persons had been
hauled to the lookup. The Black Hand
had reached Clifton at last, but 1t was
to be rooted out forthwith. On the
second morning after receiving the let
ter Janet saw the grocer's boy at the
back door again. and as she took
bunch of asparagus from his hands she
found missive with 1t and also re-
ceived a wink from him. She passed
the wink by and ran up to her room
with the letter. In a moment she had
the Black Hand by the throat. Il
showed her your luv letter to me-"
read the letter. land she took on aw-
full. She was jelus, and | guess she
wrote you last mite. Don't mind her
| will shake her for you"
Herbert. the grocer's boy, had taken
over the ownership of the missive for
Herbert. the lover. He had shown tito
the shirtmaker, and her jealousy had
been aroused She it was who had
written the BLACK Han" letter. Major
Cleveland was plunginG around and
telling the whole town what he was
going to do when his daughter put him
on the right track. He rushed Off t.
see the shirtmaker and frightened hel
into owning up. and he had returned
home to tell what punishment was tt
be inflicted when Miss James inquired
Papa. do you want everybody tt
H..