Year: 1872

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"I cannot remain here-come out friends
into the open air, and let us consult together
I cannot talk calmly-I cannot even think
coherently, with her blood meeting my eye on
every side"


The party stole out from the dairy-house,
that reeked with blood, silently and with
blanched faces. No one spoke to his fellow
but in an ominous undertone-such was the
feeling of horror that chilled and fettered
them.


The party clustered together around him,
and Captain Player told them Of the wild ra,
wings of the maniac, whose incoherent words
in the light of therecent discovery, now showed
a distinct and terrible meaning. What if the
details of the dark tragedy, at which her ra'
wings vaguely limited, were also true? Cap
tain Player spoke out frankly and plainly,
keeping nothing back of the rawlings uttered
by the old negro while she covered and shrank
from the bloody vision that ever rose before
her excited imagination. He left it for those
around him to interpret her words for them
selves, and to construct out of the broken ma
terials the terrible tragedy with all Of its har-
rowing concomitants. True, she was now a
wild maniac, raving incoherently about q
tragedy, the atrocity of which was enough to
unsettle the reason; but that all her madness
raved of might be but the reproduction of the
terrible impression made upon her mind by
scenes that she had witnessed, from the recol-
lection of which she shrank in terror and awe.


The question discussed by the group stand
ing at the door of the dairy-house, with the
blood of the unfortunate woman staining the
the floor at their feet, and sprinkled upon the
threshold before them, was, whether they
should act upon the hints thus obtained, or
dismiss them as the delirious rawlings of q
wild creature, unworthy of attention.


The question was soon decided. The party
mounted their horses and set out towards the
house to arrest the negro, George, and exam
inc into his connection with the affair. Cap
tain Player remembered the ghastly face of
the negro, on the day following Mrs. GAL
loway's disappearance, and, in recalling it to
mind, he could but acknowledge to himself
that it wore the aspect of one whose conscience
was burdened with some crime too fearful to
think on, that made the eye stony and i'm
pressed the face with horror.


A search for the suspected criminal revealed
the fact, that he, too, had suddenly disap-
peared, on the day succeeding that Of the
murder. He had not been seen by any one
on the plantation since the morning of Cap
tain Players visit to the place Suspicion
deepened into a conviction of his guilt, and
riders were dispatched in various directions to
spread the news of the discovery Just made,
and urge the awakened country to make a
thorough search for the criminal guilty of so
remorseless and diabolical crime. 1t was
now necessary, too, since the evidence of MUIR
der was so palpable, to vary the manner OF
conducting their explorations. The hands
that had done so foul crime, would not be
content to leave the body of their victim ex-
posed, where an accident might bring their
deed to light, and lead the avenger upon their
track, while the traces of their winding and
doublings were still fresh. Somesecret grave,
in some secluded and out of the way spot, was
to be diligently searched for and examined for
some sign that might point to the perpetrator
Of the crime.


Leaving couple Of persons to guard the
dairy-house from intrusion, Captain Player
set off to communicate with the various de-
tachments engaged in the search, and make
known the new aspect of affairs, and suggest
such plans as the further discovery might
seem to require. He had not gone far before
he was startled by the notes of horn, giving
signals, that the party making it had alighted
upon discovery of some Importance, in un-
raveling the mysterious affair.


The party with him, put spurs to their
horses and galloped on, to learn the purport
of the signal. Hurrying across wide field,
they entered into the woods, near mile away,
in front of the house, and, still guided by the
sound of the horn, entered thick and
tangled swamp, from the recesses of which,
the signal continued to be sounded at inter-
walls. For in the swamp, on an island, thick
ly overgrown with vines and bushes, was gath
cred group of some twenty horsemen, sit
ting in silence around q noisome and shapeless
mass, shreds and tatters of clothing, and hu-
man flesh, half devoured from protruding
bones, This fearful and almost undistin-
guishable heap, from which they shrank with
loathing and horror, was the remains of a
human being scattered and halfdevoured by
birds and beasts. There lay the grinning
skull with the brow upturned. Some Of the
party had the hardihood to dismount and
makea more critical examination of the mu-
tilated remains. All were puzzled and as
tonished at the result of the scrutiny. A
double murder had come to light. That
loathsome heap consisted of the remains Of a
human being-a negro; and the skull pierced
through and through by a rifle bullet, told
how he had come to his death. Recognition
was wholly impossible. All wondered who
this luckless creature could be, and what mo-
tive had led to his murder in this secluded
spot. The coat was still buttoned around the
Aeshless ribs. Captain Player made his way
up to the inner circle. One glance was sufi-
cient to resolve more than one doubt in his
mind. There were the military buttons that
had caught his attention few days previ-
ously.


"This is Galloway's George, gentlemen" /"