Year: 1870

Ou tue southwest coast OF ireland
About a month previous to the
time of which ! write, a gentle.
man had been shot down at his
own gate in Tipperary. Every.
body knew that the murderer was
lurking somewhere in the neigh
borhood in the hope Of obtaining
a passage to America. An unu.
sually large reward had been
offered for his apprehension, and
the police were securing the coun.
try night and day, in every di-
rection.


One summer night / had re.
turned from a long days fishing
in the bay, and was smoking a
farewell pipe for the night, when
| heard the tap of horses feet on
the gravel outside, followed by a
sharp ring at the bell. 1t was
with no small delight that | rec
ognized the we'll known voice of
Frank Butler, constabulary of.
ficer, and one of my oldest friends.


When he had seen his horse
put up Ia splendid hunter, that
had carried Frank 60 miles that
day. and sat down to supper, /
noticed Frank looked more tired
and careworn than usual. II was
not long before the cause came
out.


You have heard of this muir
der, of course, Harry he said /;
that is what brought me here to
night; it occurred in my district,
and the gentleman was an inti-
mate friend. l would have dined
with him that day, but was called
suddenly on duty, and sent an apol-
ogy at the last moment. | was
since told that he walked down to
his avenue gate to meet me. His
hand was on the latch when the
villain fired from behind a tree,
and he brought his life to the
ground. You know this country
well !


so we'll that if the fellow is ly-
ing out anywhere within five miles
| could undertake to put you on
his track


Frank sprang from his chair
and walked hurriedly around the
room.


q would give my right arm to
be face to face with him, Harry.
If you had seen poor --'s
wife; her weary, hopeless face
has been haunting me ever since.
| can never rest until the murderer
is taken, and / have certain inlor-
nation that he is lying out some
where. Every house has been
searched over and over, but can
not think of bringing you into
the fuss. One victim is enough.
If it were known, you would be
marked man.


Make your mind easy on that
score. Not one of the fellows
here will touch hair OF my head,
especially in a strangers affair
My life is the most of their leases,
and the heir-at- law is not such a
favorite that they would shoot
me TO bring him in. So now to
business; l will get the ordnance
map, and we can trace out the plan
of our campaign now


Our task was not such a diff
cult one after all; the ground TO
be searched was limited and toler-
ably open, consisting chiefly of
bog, mountain and shore, with ev
cry foot of which / was familiar.


/ pointed out to Frank each
days work, on the map, and with
out assistance, and hunting to-
gether, three days would be suffi-
cient to beat it all.


I had a brace of young settlers
in training at the time, and to
prevent suspicion, it was agreed
that we should go out as if dog
breaking was our only Object
Accordingly the following morn
ing, we'll provided with all the ct
ceteraS for such work, we started
on our first days hunt. Itproved
a blank; but the second day
showed us that our game was on
foot not far off. In a little wood
en- glen we came upon several art
fully concealed chairs, which were
tevidently lately occupied, and in
one of them / picked up an old
pistol flint that had been thrown
away and replaced, and there was
some paper lying beside it, from
which a small piece had been
torn as if to cover a new one.


We tracked footsteps for a con-
siderable distance, from it, until
thav yvara Loot ia a boaSbo.,. -,