Year: 1864

kille by such furious wound, with all the
arteries and veins of the head broken, there
could not have flown much less than two
gallons of blood. Butwhere was it? There
had not been pint spilled where the body
had lain. looked to SEQ if 1 could find
blood anywhere else; and by and by ]
found little clOt nearer to the creek.
continued to move on, and at the very edge
Of the stream l found more blood-nOt
much-only few drops,-but knew that
it was blood. And found more found
the prints Of feet there deeply sunken in
the mud.


At this point the idea which had before
been dimly floating in my mind as a posi-
bility became very near reality. These
prints were at some little distance from the
sunkeu bridge, and the man who had made
them had crossed point Of turf in reach
ing the road. / selected spot where the
mud was quite hard, and here l stepped
along by the side Of the other track. !
was heavy man and yet the prints Of
my feet were not more than half as deep
as those other prints. What did this sig
nifty !? It signi6ed very plainly to me that
the man who had made those deeper tracks
had borne heavy load upon his shoul-
dersi
And thus / arrived at conclusion
which explained why the search and inyes-
LEGATIONS Of the officers for two years or
more had proved futile. They had searched
in the wrong place. They had taken it for
granted that the murders had been com
mitted upon that dark road in the swamp.
l was now convinced that the dead body /
had just left had been borne to its present
place of rest from the shore of the creek
And whatwas there beyond that? How
came it upon the shore Of the creek? We
shall see.


lef the proper officers to take charge
Of the corpse, and having told Mr.. Watson
to meet me in jackson on the following
morning, started for the latter place and
put up my horse at the stable Of the inn
the inn kept by I.aman Stoker. / found
the hostler; and l shuddered when / looked
at him-not because he was very ugly
looking man but because he looked to me
exactly ft to help his master do bloody
work. He was thin, pale, cold-blooded
fellow, with low, receding brow sharp,
cold eyes a small, triangular nose and a
thick, heavy under lip. If he had been
larger man, these characteristic features
would have been more prominent, and peo-
pie might have feared him; but, as it was,
he had passed for weakly, unhealthy man,
and nobody had thought Of his doing any
harm. Il


The landlord had not yet returned, and
while the hostler-his name was John
BOone-was removing the saddle from my
beast, spoke Of the murder in the swamp
The fellow had heard it all, but he had not
been down to sec the body. His master
had gone, and he had to remain behind
He spoke freely and uncOncernedly-in fact,
too much so. 1t would have been natural
for him to have exhibited some little feel
ing; and the fact that he did so led me to
conclude that he had schooled himself to
act his part. .ls


After I had seen nv horse taken care Of.
I walked out behind the inn. upou the brow
Of a point of table land. and at a short dis
tance below saw the bend of the creek.
Towards the creek | made my way, and
when within few rods Of the water !
stopped. / saw something upon the grass
"a dark, red eliot, hanging upon. stout
blade, and bending il down. ! stopped,
and took II upon my fingers, and found it
to be blood l pushed on to the shore Of
the stream, but there were no fresh foot
prints there. went back little way, and
found that the trail turned to the left, and
it led me to a point Of the swamp which
made up behind the bluff upon which the
village stood. made my way into the
thicket Of vines and cottonwood, and pre-
sently / found boat drawn up upon the
shore Of the creek. 1t was Of the kind
called dug-out, and was wet, outside and
in, as though it had lately been washed
down.


Perhaps you can imagine that l was be-
ginning to be little excited in my search.
The boat had been washed down and rinsed
but the fatal marks had not been entirely
obliterated. The water that had gathered
in the bottom, standing in little pools, had
a crimson tinge. and there were one or two
dark spots which had not been washed of.


So far as my own mind was concerned, l
had not a doubt left. Since / had first en-.
Ftertained the idea Of the criminality Of La.
man stoker, everything had turned out Just
as had looked for IL: and. when left the