The Press., 1915-03-24

ont through Inc window. saw that fh1
 house was surrounded by mounted
 masked men. Then there was rap al the door
 Henderson went down to answer tho
 summons and asked what was wanted | A man-leader of the vigilance com
 mittee-entered forced Henderson 4t | dress and despite the plead.ngs of his wife and children took him from the | house and down the road for/a shor
 distance. where they stopped under 6 tree.
 | Confess that you murdered Dr. At | water" said the leader.
 .I did not
 A rope was produced. placed around Henderson's neck and the other enc | thrown over limb of the tree. The | eulprit was again called on to confess but persisted in his innocence. Ht was drawn up slowly until he became unconscious. then lowered and wher | revived called on again to confess. Believing that he would not live Il son to gain time admitted that he had murdered Atwater, but that two other men were implicated with him. Ii they would give him trial by law he would make plain the whole scheme which was to force the doctor to tel them where he had buried large sum of money.
 The committee-there were ten oi them-consulted together and agreed that it would be we'll to get the whole story and to do this had better stop the proceedings. So, taking off their masks, which, now that Henderson had confessed, were not necessary they took him to the jail and turned him over to the sheriff.
 Henderson secured one delay after
 another. while he sent out statements of his case to editors all over the coun, try begging them to publish it in the hope that Dr. Atwater would see ii
 and come back to save him. Several
 months passed and nothing came of
 this effort. At last Henderson could find no excuse to put his trial off long.
 CT and made up his mind that, having confessed. he would have to swing
 The trial came off, and. having in vented the story duplicating others, he
 confessed as much, giving as a reason
 that had he not done so he would have
 been put to death.
 The feeling ran so high against him
 that, though the judge charged the
 jury that there was no real evidence
 against the prisoner and though four
 of the twelve jurymen at first voted
 for an acquittal, verdict of guilty
 was handed in by the foreman. Scarcely was the word spoken when
 man was seen elbowing his way through the crowd, and when he broke into the open space occupied by the lawyers an exclamation of astOnish- ment burst forth. He was pr. At
 water. the supposedly murdered man. Atwater had seen one of the notices
 of the position in which he had placed the man who had befriended him and
 hastened to save him. The reason of his coming to B. and of his disap- pearance from there was that he had had trouble with his wife and had been directed by the court to pay her alimony which had loaded him with debt. To escape from further demands he had gone west and practiced his profession under an assumed name. The letter he had received which had disconcerted him was from his brother | notifying him that his wife had learn. | ed of his whereabouts. When called | out on the night of his disappearance instead of going to visit the patient he had travelled till morning, turning up | after several weeks. shifting,- in an other locality and under another name Before leaving the courthouse Hen derson entered a complaint against the ten members of the vigilance commit. tee for "felanious attack with intent to kill," claiming $10,OO0 from each and every one of them for barbarous and inhuman treatment. They were all ar rested the same afternoon and lodged in the same jail in which Henderson had been confined. Some of them se- cured bail and were liberated; others
 remained in confinement until the mat
 ter was settled.
 Those who were free met together
 and sent one of their number to Hen
 derson with proposition to pay him
 on behalf of all the committee 30 per
 cent of his demands if he would with
 draw his charge. He declined the
 proposition. A meeting of citizens was
 called and the full amount of the claim
 raised by subscription. It was paid
 over to Henderson within sixty days.
 and he withdrew his suit.
 Henderson paid the doctors arrears
 for alimony, after which he, his wife
 and children and the doctor all disap-
 peared and never were seen in B.
 again. It is said that Henderson is a
 grape grower in California and that
 the doctor is practicing medicine ir
 some foreign country.