The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-11-27
(Continued.)

@Contdnued.0 As we approached Joe hailed him. Plank was a thick shou1dered, stout man, his big body set back upon his hips, his big chin thrust forward in a way that accentuated the arrogance of his bulging lips and eyes.
 'sHo! It's you, Joe!s he cried.
 ssYes, MT. Plank"
 ssThat is lucky, for need your help: My daughter was murdered yesterday The words made me gasp, and not ] me only.
 Miss virginnyt' cried Joe. esYou can't mean that Nobody would be brute enough to kill Miss .Virginny!'' As we walked Plank gave us the fol. lowing facts: It appeared that. he had been spending the last two weeks in a log hut which had been lent him by a friend, Mr. Wilshere. His household consisted of one serVant-his daugh- ter's nurse. middle aged woman whom they had brought with them from New York-two guides and a man cook. On 1 the previous day Miss Virginia had I taken her rod after lunch, as she had often done before, and gone off to the river to fish.
 s4At I went to join her. She was not there. Her rod lay broken, and 1 there were signs of a struggle and the l tracks of two men. shouted for Ed, the old guide. He came running down, i and we took up the trail. It led us straight over to Nooseshank lake. The rufaans had gut her in our own canoe and gone out on the lake : l Plank paused and presently contin= l ued:
 I've went round the lake and found on the far side the spot where they had beached the canoe. Lending up into the woods from that point, we again struck the trail of the two men, but my daughter was no longer with them. When they left the canoe they were going light. They must have drowned ! her in the lake. It's clear enough Presently saw something floating on the water. It was her hat"
 Had Miss yirginny any jeweIy on her?'' asked Joe.
 sA A watch and a necklace" + ssWhat value?''
 'sSeven or eight hundred dollars.
 stHuh,s' said November ref1ectiYely. And what did you do after finding her hat2's
 We trai1ed the two villains until they got on to some rocky ground. It was too dark then to do more, so we returned. Five thousand dollars if you lay hands on them,'' he said. By the riversthe traces were so plain that any one could read them-the slender feet of the victim and the larger footprints of the two men. The fishing rod, snapped off toward the top of the middle joint, had been left where it had fallen. It seemed as if the girl had tried to defend herself with it Next we went to the lake.
 November literally nosed his way along. The moccasined tracks of the two men showed faintly here and there on the softer parts of the ground.
 "Looks as if they was toting some thing said Joe. .'They must "a car ried her. Stop! They set her down here for spell
 Another moment brought us over the rise and in sight of Mooseshank lake. halted involuntarily. The place seem ed created for the scene of a tragedy
 November had pushed on to the spot where footprints and other signs show ed where the men had entered the ca noe. The deep slide of moccasined foot in the mud seemed to tell of the effort it required to get the girl em- parked.
 They took her~out on the lake and murdered her!'' groaned Plank. Drag g1ng? There's no use dragging, that water goes plumb down. to the root of l the world''
 l After that we went around to the other side of the lake and saw the beached canoe. The two sets of moe easined tracks showed clearly on the strip of mud by the water, but were soon lost in the tumbled debris of a two-year-old stony landslip over which trailing appeared quite impossible No vember was busy about this landing place for a longer time than I expect ed, then he crossed the landslide at right angles and disappeared from our view. Soon he came hurrying to- ward US.
 ''She isn't dead-'
 '.What?''
 Anyways. she wasn't when she passed here. I have proof here tha1 you will think mighty good-'' He drew out little leather case had give1 him and extracted from it long hail of beautiful red gold color. sLool at that! I found it in the spruce: above there
 Plank took it gently in his grea