The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-06-24

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 With the leaves ez thick ez the way they air, still huntin is best this time O year" he explained. "So l won't be neddin' Gyp. Don't let neither one of 'em gnaw hisself loose and follow after me. Set me up Likely l won't get back till it's i plum nighttime-gunnin fur them squrrels is best jes' before dark, and i I'll be away off wonder at the fur l here, when I get ready to start back l 'Tain't ez ef 1 wuz rangin in the low ground"
 He turned north through the struggling corn rows and in minute was gone from her sight into the north for nearly a mile until he came to where a wild red mulberry tree stood in d small natural opening.
 Some of the overripe fruit, black ened and shriveled, still clung to the l boughs; and where there are null berries in the summer woods, there squirrels almost certainly will like wise be, Very neatly he shot two young grays through their heads
 Japhet was master marksman. It was his only gentlemanly accom- plishment In all other respects he was just plain, poor white trash, as one of his negro neighbors would have phrased it-behind Japhet's back.
 But unsuspected by any who knew him he had quality of mind which is denied many of his class-an imagination. It was in excellent working order this day. He was now proving that it was.
 He tied the brained squirrels to- gether and swung them, tails down. ward over a strap of his suspenders. | If needed, they were to be evidence in his behalf-part of his alibi.
 Next he sat down under tree awhile. He sat out two brisk show CTS with the intervals between them. | Then, getting up, he set off, keeping 1 always to the deeper woodlands, in d swing which, would bring him down Baileys branch, now wasted to succession of lazy dribbles and along the skirts of Little Cypress Slash to the sunken flats edging | Cashier Creek.
 The arc of his swing was wide. It took him all of two hours, travelling carefully and without haste through | the steamY coVerts, to reach the point he aimed for.
 He came to halt. cautiously and well sheltered, behind the farther most fringes of a little jungle of | haw bushes where the diminishing woods frayed out in a sort of green l peninsula fifty yards or so back of Snake Doctors cabin. This was his chosen destination, SC here he squat ted himself down in a nest of sod den leaves and grass to wait It had l begun to shower again, good and hard. He was drenched. No matter. though; he figured he would not have so very long to wait. As it turned out he didn't.
 There was nc house dog to come nosing him out and barking an alarm. That Snake Doctor owned no dog would have marked him, in this part of the land as person totally different from his fellows. even had there been lacking other points of variance.
 What Snake Doctor did own was a mare. or the ruins of one. She was housed in a log crib a few rods be- hind the only slightly larger log cabin of her owner
 Where he stopped. Japhet could hear her stirring restlessly in her stall. He might have seen her through the cracks between the logs of her shelter except for a brush fence which bounded the small weed grown clearing.
 His plan was simple enough and yet, as he saw it, fault-proof. Feed ing time was at hand; soon Snake Doctor, ailing though he was. surely would be coming out from his cabin to bait the old rack -of-bones.
 Japhet counted on this. He'd get him then, first pop.
 He'd teach him what the costs were of colleaguing with another mans lawful welded wife. and the lesson would be the death of him. At half crouch in his ambush, Japhet told himself that his motive was jealousy; that he was here as a white man and an injured husband for the satisfaction of his personal honor and in the defense of his threatened threshold.
 Df f, rr-fIt he kept in the background of his mind the other purpose that had brought him on this errand. It had to do with money-wth Snake Doc tors boarded money.
 Tho next step after the principal act would be tc dispose of the body. That should be easy. He would carry the meager frame over his shoulder , for mile, if need be. And he wouldn't have to carry 1t for mile either-only as far as the big hole: then lower the burden into the water and let it slip into the log jam. The chunk he had killed the moe ; casin with had stayed under there: r skinny old Snake Doctor would stay there, too.
 This done he would come back here to the cabin and hunt up the 5 hidden treasure. He figured 1t shouldn't take him great while to find it. he already had sort of notion as to It's WhereaboutS, strong clew to start on.
 Having found it he would circle back up through the woods, re-enter- ing his field from the upper northern side, with two squirrels flappng his flank for proof that he had been hunting on Bailey's Ridge. Suspicion never could touch him. Why should it?
 He counted on the rain which was now falling to wipe out his tracks in snake Doctors horse lot, Anyhow. it would probably be days or wet ks before anyone missed the hermit and made seach for him; in that time the tracks would have vanished, rain or no.
 It was greatly in his favor that when Snake Doctor was from home, or supposed to be, folks religiouslN refrained from setting foot on the premises They nightly feared the cotton with which the re- cluse was reputed to consort.
 There was even story that snake Doctor kept fer watehman in his house the granddaddy of all created cotton mouths and set this monster on guard when he stirred abroad. So he needed no locks on his doors nor bar for his single window, the legend amply protecting his belongings in his absence.
 Ten minutes passed, fifteen. and Japhet was up on his knees, his rifle at poise. his eyes vgilant through the tops of the weeds which frinsed tho ambuscade. Something or other -somethine quick and furtive-stir- red behind him. Startled, he turned his head saw that the disturber was belated catbrd. and looked front again.