The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1915-06-25
A SHREWD
WOMAN
BY EUNIG BLAKE

Der Of goats and made cheese Of their
milk. One day when Martin was
climbing up to a considerable height
be came to a man lying on his back In
a dying condition. for he had slipped
and fallen over u Cliff. Martin stanch-
ed the blood flowing from the wound
and otherwise cared for the sufferer
until he died. Then he went down to
the valley to report the matter.
Martins wife. Gretchen, was a very
shrewd woman and before doing any.
thing of Importance he was used to con.
sulting her. So he went home and told
her Of his experience and that he was
about to report II that the body he had
left on the mountain side might be
buried.
Don't you say anything about it."
said Gretchen. you might be accused
Of having committed u MURDER"
Martin had thought Of that himself.
and this was one reason why he had
mentioned the matter to his wife. He
concluded to keep his mouth shut. But
there were two things he did not think
OF. In succoring the stranger he had
got some blood on his sleeve, and when
descending the mountain be had met
Jacob Kirshner going up. Kirshner
found the body and In telling Of bis
find mentioned having met Kempfer
coming down the mountain. This ex-
cited some suspicion that Kempfer had
been the cause Of the strangers death,
and q man was sent to his house to
Investigate. kempfer received him,
and the visitor noticed q spot on his
shirt sleeve that looked like blood.
TO make a long story short. Kempfer's
not having reported the strangers
death led to his undoing. He was tried
for murder and convicted, to be SEN
fenced on q Friday at the hour Of
II loon.
Gretchen. his wife, was horror strick-
Ell at the result Of the advice she had
given her husband, who attempted to
comfort her by saying that If he had
reported the matter he might still have
been convicted The misfortune was
In finding the stranger. Gretchen, who,
rs has been said, was q woman Of
great shrewdness, set her wits to work
~ "a vi ooilC pau "icIcDy SIG
might save her husband.
She went to Adolph Switzer, the head
man OF the canton, and besought him
to save her husband, assuring him that
1t was her fault that he had been CON
victed and it was she. If any one. that
should he punished. SwitZer replied
that the verdict was a matter for the
courts, over which he had no power.
and Gretchen went away discOnsOlate.
One morning some time before the
hanging Gretchen. being still asleep.
dreamed Of n plan by which she might
save her husband. When she nwOke.
though. she did not consider ii likely
to succeed: still she believed it uussj-
bic. At any rate she determined TO
try 1t.
Her husband had. among other things,
a "chronometcr which had been given
him by n matchmaker in Geneva ana
which he valued very highly He Sc
cured the time once Il month regularly
and found that his watch never varied
more than Sew seconds. The result
was that Martin furnished time for the
whole valley The day before the
hanging the sheriff asked n citizen to
go to Gretchen and get the time. that
he might be sure to execute his pris
oner in exact accordance with the sen.
tence. Gretchen gave the inquirer time
fifteen minutes behind what was cor.
rect. stating that she had learned that
owing to bad weather the stronOme
in Geneva who observed the sun had
been unable to do so for several weeks
and had discovered a considerable er.
ror in his chrOnometcrs. The sheriff
set his watch I'm accordance with the
time given him
On the morning Of the hanging Gretch-
en- went to the head man of the can
ton and asked him for an order for the
body of her husband that she might
give 1t burial. Switzer replied that he
would give her the order after the ex
ecution had taken place and not be-
fore. Half an hour before IL she went
to his house with her chronometer.
which she set ahead fifteen minutes.
and when the hands pointed to IL
Switzer signed the order. Gretchen
had a horse and Il cart in waiting n
short distance from the house. and.
jumping into the cart. she whipped the
horse to q gallOp. traversing Il mile to
the jail. On the way she turned the
hands of her chrOnOmeter backward
TO correspond with the time she had
given the sheriff. When she reached
him his and her %timepieces both mark.
ed ten minutes to IL She held the
head mans order aloft. crying:
"A reprieve. a ~reprieve"
The sheriff read the order and. think.
ing that the condemned man had been
pardoned. turned him over to his wife.
Then the two jumped into the cart and
drove like mad to n railway station a
few miles distant. where they caught
a train bound for the French border.
The misunderstanding that Gretchen
had brought about between the head
man of the canton and the sheriff was
not discovered till an hour after that