B8SS is ,x ymjffl fe ,sai 1 '"J VOL. XII. NEW BLOOMFIELD, Fl., TXJESDA.Y, MA.Y 28, 1878. NO. 22. THE TIMES. in Independent Family Newspaper, 18 PUBLISHED EVEKY TUESDAY BT F. MORTIMER & CO. 0 IUB8CBIPTIOK V It I C K . (WITHIN THE COUNTY. One Year 2s bix Months, 75 (OUT OF THE COUNTT. one Year, (Potaze Included) (1 fO lx Months, (Postage included) 86 Vor The Tihks. Ah, well, If we never fell From the goal toward which we've striven, There would be no returning prodigal , Jlence would be less Joy In Heaven. W. H. McCmntock. LOCKIN' THE BARN. "Jamie, where ha' ye been, my lad ? There's tallow upon your sleeve, An' your face Is jlet as red as your beard, I verily do believe." " I was out 1' the barn o-locklc' up, sir, For to keep the thieves awa' ; Ye'll mind as ye told me not to forget ! Jist a week agane to-da'." "Jennie, where ha' ye been, my lass? Your tresses are a' awree, An' the red on your cheeks Is very red , An a sparkle Is In your eye." " The win' was a-blowln' so dreary, sir, That the candle-light was dim, An', please, sir, I only went alang Jist to hold it weel for him." " Weel, many's the time I've lockt the barn, An' I've still a clean coat sleeve, An' Jennie held nlver a light for me, I verily do believe. There's somewhat comln,' God bless ye both, If I know what I'm about Take care that the dreary win' of lli'e Blows nlver you candle out." A Story of Circumstantial Evidence. WE WERE sitting round our tent one evening last year, at Wimble ton, the "we" being our major, the captain and sub of our company, his covering sergeant, corporal Williams, and a certain sapper, to wit, myself. We were drinking pale ale and smoking, as was every one else in the hundred tents around us. " Here's my last bull's eye," and the sergeant produced from his cap-pouch a flattened bullet, turned inside out as neatly as possible. " What'8 the cause of that, I won cter," said the corporal. " You see," said the captain being an engineer he was bound to know "when the point of the bullet strikes the target, part of the lead is melted by the devel opment of heat caused by the sudden arrest of the bullet's motion, and goes off in the splash, the rest of the bullet is softened by the heat ; and inasmuch as the parts must stop in their order of suc cession, the edge of the cup of the bullet is driven in level with the base of the cup. Is that so, Major V" " Yes, quite right; but, if you like, I can spin you a yarn about these said bullets, that may just last out these weeds." " Well, let's have it." I had a sort of second cousin, Gerald Ashton, who had been brought up with myself and my sister, my father being his guardian. We had all been like brothers and sister, when one day he woke up to find be could not live with out a nearer relationship to her. He ispoke to the old gentleman, aud there was a little family fracas. He had only a hundred a year, and my father did not think that was enough, though Gerald did; there was no objection at all in other respects, let blm arn some more and they would see, wait a little you know the kind of thing an old gentleman would say. Well, It was of no use. He said he felt himself a burden; there was no scope for his energies, and be would go, and tie did go. '' I urged upon him that he should get something to do. He bad been well ed ucated, and a clerkship, or something of that kind, could be got or him if he Btill resolved not . to go pn at the ho. pltal- - j v No, he would go. There was only one thing he did do well, that was shoot; and he would carry his abilities to a market where they would be apprecia ted. And so, at the mature age of twenty-two, he left us, his profession, his home, and his prospects. He disappear ed, and six months after we heard he was with, say the 40th Dragoons, in In dia. We wrote, and offered to buy his discharge, but he would "have none of ub." He liked it very well ; was already corporal; expected the three stripes soon; and was "Gentleman Jack" with his comrades. Borne six months after this I was sent out to India with a company; and as my sister was getting thin, and show ing other signs of the desirability of a sea-voyage, and of a warm climate, it was agreed I should take her over. We reached Calcutta, and in a few weeks Bettled down. There was war going on and I was placed in charge of one of the chief depots for small arms and ammu nition, besides having my regular duties with the company. One day I was down at the store, when my sister arrived, pale and breathless. " Look, Charles, poor Gerald's in dreadful trouble," I put her in an office chair, and took the newspaper, and read " Yesterday evening as an ofilcer of the 40th Dragoon Guards was returning to camp he was shot at from behind a clump of bushes ; the bullet struck him in the thigh, and lodged in the saddle. Although wounded so severely he had sufficient presence of mind to ride straight to the bushes, and there found one of his own men, a corporal of the troop, nicknamed . "Gentleman Jack" by his comrades, whose rifle was still smoking from the discharge. Fortunate ly, at this moment the guard arrived, and the man was at once arrested. A court-martial will, of course, be held at once, and, although the man has previ ously borne a good character and is re ported to be respectably connected, It Is to be hoped he will receive the proper reward for so abominable a crime." "O," I said, " this is all nonsense. Gerald's no murderer, or else he's very much changed. I'll see what they say at head-quarters." " Do for God's sake, go. If anything happened to Gerald I should never for give myself, for if I had run away with him when papa was so cruel, he never would have enlisted at all." " Don't talk nonsense, Meggle, but go home, and I'll come home with the tele graph news." I went to head-quarters ; they gave me permission to use the telegraph for a question or two. The report was not encouraging. It was our Gerald, the officer had seen the flash and heard the report, an ex tremely loud report, as If there had been two charges of powder In the carbine. The bullet was found in the saddle, and one cartridge was missing from his twenty rounds. Court-martial had de clared him guilty, and the general's con firmation of the sentence had just ar rived. Fifty lashes In the camp square, and four years imprisonment in the civil jail. Sentence to be carried out on the 12th. Everybody was sorry, but quite convinced that he had tried to murder his superior officer. No one could un derstand with what motive. I did not know what to think ; there was more evidence forthcoming in a day or two, when we had the papers. His statement in defence was, that he had just been returning from guard, when he remembered that he had forgot ten to bring in a book one of the officers had asked him to bring in from the town, some three miles distant. With out stopping to think he walked off at once, got the book, and was within half a mile of the camp when he fancied he saw a tiger. He got behind the bushes to watch, and saw one making for the distant camp. Anxious to secure the prize, he incautiously broke open one of his packages and loaded, to have a shot at it. He had covered the beast, and was firing at the tiger, when he heard another report simultaneously with that of his carbine. He saw the tiger roll right over as If shot, and then bound way. In another Instant the officer came round the copse bleeding, and or dered him into arrest. He was quite Bure that he had bit the tiger, and equal ly sure thdl another rifle was fired at the same moment that he pulled the trigger. Of course such a lame state ment had no efTeet, and he was sen tenced. I could not help thinking that there was a flaw in the evidence. How was it if there was, as agreed, a loud report, which meant a full charge of powder that the bullet stopped at the saddle Instead of going through both saddle and horse. That was a great discrepan cy, a full charge would have made a loud report, and sent it right through anything at a distance of 200 yards. I felt there was something wrong, nnd made up my mind to go on the spot. I had but six days to go in, but much might be done. Margaret Insisted on going with me in spite of all I could do to keep her away. " Have I not done all you wished me to do since I have been out here V Do, for Heaven's sake, let me have my way in this." So we went up the country in post haste. I was, of course, as one of the staff, admitted to see Gerald, whom I found terribly cut up. " I don't mind the imprisonment; it's the disgrace I the lashes 1 I shall kill myself directly I get loose after it, I know I shall." " No, no," said Meggle ; "don't for my sake. O Gerald! if you knew how I have suffered for weeks past, you would live for my sake. I do not care about the brand or the lashes. I know you are Innocent, and that there has been some horrible blunder commit ted in this matter. O, Willie, dear, do think of something to save him." " O, do, there's a good fellow ! get me some stuff that will make an end of me." " Don't talk like 'that, Gerald ; there's some infernal mistake In it. Don't despair yet. Let's go over the ground again step by step," and I made him tell me the whole story over again. " It seems to me, Gerald, we want not a few things to show you are not guilty. We want the tiger you shot at, and that we shan't get; and we want the clue to the mystery of the other rifle." "O.I've thought of It all till I'm sick. I don't care what happens now. I'll wait till the day before It's to come off, and then break my head against the walls." " Don't be a fool, Gerald ! I'm sure you are innocent. So Is Margaret." "Yes; so are a hundred others; but it's all no use. In three days I am dis graced for life, if I live." " Well, I must leave you now, and see what I can do." " Let me have five minutes with Meg gle, will you V" I left them alone for some ten minutes and then told Meggie she must go home with me. I was beaten ; I could not see how I could get any fresh evidence, and without that a reprieve a postpone mentwas impossible. I went to the wounded officer, the captain of his own company, and got him to tell his own story ; It was the same thing over again always the exceedingly loud report, and the fouled and still smoking carbine. " I would," said the captain, "have given the price of my commission rath er than have had it happen. He's as fine a fellow as ever sat a horse, brave, kind, and as thorough a gentleman as the colonel himself; I always made him my orderly when I could so as to have company. I declare to you that I did my best at the court-martial for him, and got into disgrace with the general presiding for 'coloring my statements' that was his expression so as to favor the prisoner. I almost snivelled when I heard the sentence, as if he had been my own brother. The men are mad about it; there has not been a lash or public punishment of any kind in the regiment for the last twenty-flve years." I hardly knew how to pass the time ; I tried to think, but my ideas only trav eled In the same old grooves again. I invited the assistant-surgeon to come up to my quarters, and introduced him to my sister. He was quite a young fellow and seemed quite flattered by my simple attention, for in the army they have not quite made up their minds w hether a medical officer should be treated as a gentleman ; but the strangest thing I ever saw in my life was my sister's con duct. Of course,' speaking to you fel lows I shan't .be' misunderstood, and some of you have seen her. She laid herself out to please him to an extent I never should have thought my dear grave Meggle capable of ; sang to him, played to him, and made eyes at htm till I thought her brain was turned. She said she should so like to see his quar ters, asked him to ask us to lunch, and shut me up like a rat trap, when I ven tured to hint that It might not be con venient. Well, he went away at last as mad as she. I spoke to her after he was gone, and she fell into my arms, sobbing as if her heart was breaking, and then, with out a word of explanation, ran out of the room. Next day we went to his quarters, and nothing would satisfy her but that he should mix up some medi cine for her out of the bottles of his lit tle traveling case. There Bhe was, handling and sniffing, and tasting ev erything, like a child of ten rather than a girl of eighteen. She sent him about the room ; made hint bring books from the opposite side of it so that she might read about the properties of the drugs, aud, in short, behaved so like a lunatic that I thought the trouble about Gerald must have affected her mind, I got her away at last, nnd intended to insist on her remaining in the house and putting some ice to her head. It was quite un necessary ; the minute we left the sur gery she was calm and silent &b a man. Well, the days passed in some sort of dreary fashion till the evening of the 11th. I had been asked during the day to go down with the officers to see some rifle practice, at some temporary marks, and I went down. It was rather late when I rode up to the firing point and they were just leaving off; and one of them came up and said, " I say, captain, tell us the cause of these new bullets turning inside outV" and he handed me a bullet reversed ; just such another as Williams has In his hand. I took it, just to explain the matter to him, when a thought struck through my mind like a flash of lightning. " Saved 1" I exclaimed. " Who's got that bullet out of the saddle V" " What bullet V" " Gerald's, my cousin's." "Oh I Gentleman Jack's affair. The doctor's got it." " Where is he?" " Don't know quarters I think." " No, he's come into town ; I saw him on the road as we came by." I sped on into the town, leaving them to think what they pleased ; and spent more than two hours finding the doctor. At last I caught him. In another min ute we were riding full gallop to his quarters. He bad the bullet a little bruised and singularly flattened, and blunted at the point it must have been just spent when it struck. I then went to the sergeant who had charge of the nineteen rounds of ammunition that was found in Gerald's pouch. About midnight I contrived to find him, and after some little delay I got possession of them. I then returned to the doctor, and we compared the nineteen bullets with the one found in the saddle. I then ran to the telegraph clerk, roused him out of bed, and told him to telegraph to the head-quarters in Calcutta, to my lieutenant in charge of the magazine. After an hour's waltlng,and ringing aU the bell, an answer came that the night watchman would fetch the lieutenant. I then sent message No. 1. " Examine the books, and see the date on which the last ammunition was sent for the use of the 40th Dragoons ; find the same parcel r and carefully remove one cartridge from each of twenty pack ets, selected at random ; take out bullets and remove plugs ; and send No. in base of cup bullets. The answer came back that he under stood, and would rouse up the people to do it. After an hour and a half, the an swer came back "All the bullets are numbered 5, with a dot on the right." I then sent message No. 2 " Examine what cartridges bear the No. 2 with a dot on the left, and report to whom issued, and when report quickly a man's life depends on speed. " Again I waited another hour. No an swer came. It was getting late half past two ; at four the parade would take place. I urged more speed. The reply came : " We have ten men at work breaking barrels, and searching. No No. yet found." ' ' ' At last it came "One barrel No. 2 in I store ; the rest of the same shipment was damaged and useless, and sold In bulk to native dealers for value as old metal at one of the clearance sales some time ago." I had learned all I could. I spurred back to camp with the bullets, from which I had never parted, In the pouch. I shall never forget the scene. In the middle of the camp the men were drawn up in three sides of a square ; in the ' centre of the square were the triangles, with Gerald lashed to them. I saw them as I came down the hill take off his Jacket and lash his wrists. I sped on. I could see the old colonel, with the pa per in his hand, standing alone, and then I saw nothing more, for a dip in the road concealed them ; as I rose again to the crest at less than a quarter of a mile, I saw a woman rush in from be tween the rauks towards the triangles, holding something in her hand. I dart ed on, and rushed into the square, but just in time to seize the furrier's arm as the lash was descending, aud to see that the woman was my sister, and that she was being led away between two ser geants. " Stop, colonel, for the love of God 1" I cried, with my hand still grasping the farrier's arm ; I have evidence to prove the man not guilty." I then showed the colonel the. bullet that had come from the saddle and the others from the pouch, and pointed out to him that while one was marked No. 2, the others were all marked No. 5, with a dot. I assured him, on my honor as an ofilcer and a gentleman, that It was almost Impossible that a No. 2 bullet could by any chance get into a packet of No. 6 bullets. He was only too glad to to hear me, and agreed to postpone the execution of the sentence till further orders from the general of his division. I've heard some shouts, and I've seen some displays of enthusiasm in my time, but I never shall forget the shouts that rose the minute that the colonel had pronounced that the execution of the sentence on Corporal Ashton would be postponed until further orders." The men had been standing at "atten tion," many of them with the tears roll ing down their cheeks, but when they heard "postpone," they broke ranks, rushed up to the triangles, cut the lash ings, broke the cat, screamed, shouted, and danced like madmen. " Three cheers for 'Gentleman Jack' and his wife ! Again I again, boys I", Officers and all joined in for a few minutes. There stood the old gray headed colonel in the midst of a scene that out-bedlamed Bedlam. As for me I was like a man in a dream; I felt a hundred hands grasping mine. I had my sister sobbing in my arms,and then I heard the colonel say to the bu gler, " Sound the assembly." What a change I in less than a minute I stood by the fallen triangles In the center of three lines of living statues. Not a sound ; not a movement. " Major Jackson, reform your column and break off the men," said the colonel; and then walked away with myself and my sister." " But what did your sister do there ?" " Well, she had promised Gerald that he should not suffer the disgrace of the lash ; and had, during the hour I thought she was fooling with the doctor, man aged to get hold of his bottle of prussic acid, and had rushed out with half of it for him and half for herself; and her appearance had so thoroughly sur prised every one that she had reached the triangles, and almost raised it to his lips, when the doctor recognizing bis own blue bottle, struck her hand a vio lent blow and dashed it on the ground, besides disabling her from getting her own share. "And how did the affuir end t was the general of the division satisfied V" I don't think he would have been with that evidence alone.and so we went about to hunt for more. I begged, that as we had found so much, Gerald might be permitted to accompany a party of search, under a guard, to find the miss ing tiger. We went there, Meggle insisted ' on joining us. All the officers off duty went, and about half the men. Gerald then pointed out the spot where be had stood, and where he bad shot the' tiger ; and from that point we started, crossing and recrossing, till there could not have been anything as large as a half-crown that could be. hidden. Meggle and I were
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