Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1916-12-27

more than that in two years?" ven-
tured Byrnes.
You bet: twelve thousand coin In
one haul"
The deputy sheriff rode off toward
town leading the horse upon which
the victim of mistaken identity was
mounted with his feet tied together
under the cinch, and the sheriff, with
| the actual old sinner as special dep
uty, began the search for treasure.
The prisoners hat had been forgotten,
and he and his captor returned to get
it. As they rode from the cabin door
| the second time, the sheriff, pursuing
his quest, pulled a ring in the floor,
opening a small door, which disclosed
cellar. He descended into it, follow
| ed by Byrnes. And one of these two
men was seen no more.
The surveyor, in custody of Deputy
lin, looked back from the heights two
miles distant and saw one man leave
the cabins and force his horse into the
rapid current of the river. The horse
swan strongly and landed on the
north bank far down the stream.
The river had risen and overlooked
| the bottoms when the deputy and
posse returned the next day, so that
it was impossible to reach the cabins.
One may swim horse half mile on
occasion, If the water be deep enough.
but one foot of water with soft mud
beneath 1t is impossible.
When the freshet subsidized the little
| no
crumbled and caved away into the
stream. The clump of cottonwoods
had been uprooted, and every vestige
of the buildings had drifted away. A
deposit of silt covered the valley from
bluff to bluff, and no man could say
where the cabins had stood.
The surveyor who went to town as
prisoner had no difficulty in estab
fishing his identity, and returned with
the party to see the end of his ad
venture. He and others spent much
time in trailing the man who had beer
seen to swim the river and go north
ward, but he was never discovered
nor identified. 1t was at first general!
assumed that this man was Byrnes
who had made off with his ill-gotteI
, riches after overcoming the sheriff
But later, when the sheriff's bonds
/ men were called upon to make up
small shortage in his accounts, it wa
: held by some that the sheriff had mad
} away with Byrnes, and found each
: SO rich that he could not afford t
} come in and give it up.
> A third ingenious theory was tina
Byrnes had "whacked up" with tn
3 sheriff, there being plumber enough I
!, make both men rich, and that bot
2 had gotten away-the sheriff on horse
] back and Byrnes afoot Finally 90
the meager description that could b
: had of the man who rode away nortl
ward fitted to neither) it was held b
| many that the men had a fight owe
d the treasure in the cellar or cave III
v der the cabin, and that If the plac
j. could be located an excavation woul
d recover both bodies and much coin.
t The surveyor concerned himse
d chiefly with the physical features
n the case. Later in the season he too
Il the trouble TO go down with his instr
q ment, and demonstrated that no go
eminent subdivisional lines could hay
e run near the site of the twin cabin
r, Nor was the names OF Byrnes foun
s on the books of the local land offic
No doubt the cabins were connecte
e by tunnel used by Byrnes to stol
l. his plumber. No doubt the tunnel
e there yet The cowboys who ride tn
)" range talk each spring of organizir
a syndicate in the fall, and diggir
e up the whole Platte Valley. 1t wou
;" be an interesting experiment.
Id