The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1911-09-26

that in the same way. He next looked
at his watch, trying to make out the
time of night. then, stepping stealthily,
moved away from the bivouac.
Ny curiosity in the little play that
was going on SO near me impelled me
to get up and follow the man. He took
road leading southwark down to-
ward a l&tle town at the foot Of the
plateau called Jasper. l dared not
walk near him lest my steps be heard.
therefore kept about hundred yards
In his rear. l was in danger of losing
him, but / would rather do SO than
have him know that followed him
finally did lose him, but soon again
caught sight Of him or what l sup
posed was he. What was my surprise,
keeping my eye. on the figure before
me, upon its passing over a rise in the
ground and showing its silhouette
against the sky to see the garments Of
a woman instead of man.
Had Barker taken on a disguise
Had / lost him and fixed my gaze on
another An explanation soon de-
veloped. Against the sky I saw two
figures. They looked to be side by
side, but one was in rear Of the other.
! could see the legs Of one; the other
from the waist down was bell shaped
like a woman's dress.
As / looked the man turned to the
right and entered wood Then / saw
the woman do the same entered the
wood at the point as near as l could
determine 1t that they had entered and
soon found myself in a ravfne. 1t was
dark as pitch In there. and could not
choose my steps. Occasionally l
would catch a faint sound as one of
the persons l followed dislodged a
stone or broke a stick under foot.
Guided by such indications / pushed
on till suddenly l was halted by a
sound Of another kind
1t was the crack of a pistol or rife.
All was still for a few minutes.
Then heard some one hurry past me
up the decltvity. but ! could not see
who 1t was. | stood listening till /
heard groan coming from below.
Then / went down as rapidly as /
could in the dark and after going
some distance stopped and listened.
Another groan nearer guided me, and,
moving toward 1t, ] soon came to an
opening in the trees admitting enough
starlight to show me a body lying on
the ground. l bent over 1t. at the
same time asking:
"Who are your
am Barker Is that your?
Eyes, it's l. What's the troubleT
1--WE been shot"
BADLY hurtY'
81 think I'm done for I must give
you some information at once. I'm
John Archard, United States gov
eminent detective employed to hunt
up these Illicit mountain whisky stills
and bring those who run them to jus
is running still. Some one who has
got on to what l was after has fol
lowed and shot me-"
''Whom do you suspectr
T'm at loss to know. II may be
that Nancy Parks. suspecting that
was intending to shake her, watched
and followed me, not knowing any
thing Of my mission and thinking my
object to be simply to get rid of her."
A very different theory occurred to
me. Judging from what had seen.
surmised that in Nancy Parks he had
happened on one who loved the man
he was after. l reckoned that man to
be Elijah Hanks. Likely the govern
ment man had led Nancy to size him
up for what he really was and to fec
assured that he proposed to arrest he,
lover. She had pretended to be infat
uated with Archard and followed him
to keep him In view till she could
warn her lover. Having failed to
make Hanks understand her when she
saw him from the wagon. she had
| stuck to the man who was trying to
get him, followed him and shot him
just before he was about to raid the
still.
This turned out to be the true yer
sion of the story. But l kept my
knowledge of it a secret. and Nancy
Parks was never accused of the shoot
ing. The government man recovered
but was never convinced that Nancy
was not infatuated with him.