Year: 1875

time at WnIcn tniS iamenldDle triai oc'
cured, there wandered from the Blue


Ridge to the Chespeak Bay strange
and mysterious specimen Of humanity


known as old Dakka." Whether his


name had any relevancy to the evil


spirits known as " Diakka," the writer


knows not, but it is evident that his


history was a strange one. at least II


ignorance touching a mans birth,


parentage and avocation can be called


a history. At the time of which we


speak, old Dakka could not have been


less than one hundred years old, and


in height about six feet, ten or eleven


inches, very1 spare and bony, not
weighing over one hundred and forty


pounds, what we usually denominate


skin and bones, would ftly apply to


old Dakka. That venerable gentle


man, "the oldest inhabitant, could
distinctly remember old Dakka sud-
den and meteor like visits sixty years
antecedent to this. aud he carried With
him the same pecuiarity of manners
then as be did at the time of which we
speak. No man had ever seen him
eat, no man had ever seen him drink,
no one had ever seen him laugh, and
no one had ever seen him weep. IT'S
true, sometimes he would call at farm
house and ask for morsel to eat, but
not eating until he vent forth into the
deep and silent woods. A straw rick
was his couch in winter, and the bare
heath a pillow in summer. When his
name was called at the FIRE side, child
rem would cluster closer around their
mothers and speak in whispers, while
the negroes would tell of seeing many
a ghostly and weird-like phantom. So
far as human scrutiny goes, old Dakka,
up to this time, had never done any
one any harm. If he was evil dis
posed. he had kept his evil eounsels to
himself. Refusing utterly and at all
times to hold personal conversation
with any one, ii was impossible to d.
vine his thoughts, whether good or
bad. From the date of the trial of
Jennie and Robert Deering until De-
tober 1912, no one had set foot in the
Oliver house in fact he had nailed it
up securely on the evening of the rob
berry, and from indications. no one had
disturbed the quietude of the place
until he sent workmen there in Oct.
1872, to prepare the house for his fu-
ture home. In tearing away the old
stairway, underneath which was dark,
strange closet there sat the corpse of
old Dakka revealed, sitting bolt up
right on an empty keg, with his head
very slightly inclined backward and
resting against the stairway, with his
knees touching the closet door, with
the TIVE iffy dollar notes firmly gripped
in bots bands. Here he had sat un-
disturbed aud undisturbing for two
years, while the outer world was wreak-
ing its vengance upon innocence and
purity Several questions might be
asked touching his ingress into the
house and his failure to make egress
'thefefrom. To all of said questions
we have only to say. that old Dakka
must have been watchisg divers
movements when he left the premises,
and went Immediately into the house,
taking the axe with him, breaking
open the chest, purloining the money,
and upon the approach of Jennie and
Robert Deering. he had slipped into
the little closet and pulling the door
to. it fastened with spring lock, so
that he was unable to force the fasten-
ings, and thus free himself, being afraid
to make his presence known even
when Oliver and Murphy had visited
the premises, and thinking no doubt
that he would be able at an early hour
to wrench the door from its fastenings
in due time, and thus free himself from
his dark and isolated death cell.
Again, it may be that death erept
upon him quietly and gradually, like
it very frequently does upon age and
infrmity; or it may be that the swift
winged messenger of retributiOn was
sent upon him-suddenly, as penalty
for his evil deeds. These surmises
are only matters Of conjecture and can
only BE- solved in the Great Hereafter.