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To-day's Short Story, j

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To-day's Short Story, j A STRANGE YARN. I am a poor lawyer in a small town in the SEoantaina of Kentucky. On a winter's night in 18— I was sitting in my office reading over my well-thumbed copy of the code, hunting up the law of murder. I was Smoking my pipe, and had gotten up to stir up the embers in my stove, when I saw from my window which fronted on the public square, a man walking along in what seemed to be a deep meditation. His hands were locked behind him, his head drooping on his breast, and his step was slow and weary. A dog followed at his heels. The dog was a fierce-looking bull-dog. The hour was late, and I was surprised to see any one out of doors at such an hour. The villagers were long since at home, and not a light from any window could be seen. My curiosity was aroused, and having marked my page and placed my book on the table, I went to the window and watched the man with a great deal of interest. As in all western towns, the court house stood in the middle of the square. It was a solid old stone build- ing, with immensely thick walls, which were supported by buttresses that jutted out at each corner of the four walls. A tall spire rose from the building, in which the old brazen bell had. rung out ita various calls for a century or more. This spire cast a long, slender shadow over the square. The shape of the shadow being triangular, the apex of it reached directly under my window. In my desire to satisfy my curiosity about the solitary mail whom I had seen, I walked to my door, so as to be out of the shadow of the spire. I stepped out on the porch, and saw stranger figure than before creeping along in the darkness of the shadow of the gpire, every iiow and then with a hasty move- ment gliding into the corners where th-e buttresses were. My astonishment and inte- rest arose to a great degree. I softly stepped iback into the threshold of my door so as to 1b-t, hidden from the view of both men, but where I could plainly see everything. It was growing exciting now, and my heart thumped against my breast with a noise, as I thought, that, could be heard by both men. When the man with the dog had reached the town pump and -bad stepped to drink from the nozzle, the person who had been, creeping along in the shadow stepped suddenly out in the moonlight, and with an oa.th rushed upon the first man.. The man. at the pump turned quickly at the sound of rapid fcotstteps approaching, and, seeing a man with arm upraised and brandishing a large knife rushing towards him, fled with a loud scream of terror. The dog faced the pursuer. He seemed to be transformed from a dog into a fiend. With eyes fairly darting fire, every bristle on his .body standing up like quills on a porcupine, he waited for his approach. With a growl of fierce anger, he sprang at the throat of the man with the knife. But the dog was beaten down by the man, who rufhed on in pursuit. My tongue was paralysed; I tried to. call out. With my eyes almost starting from their sockets and all power of motion having left my body, I saw the pursuer gain his victim, and with another oath plunge his weapon up to the hilt three or four times itnto the body of the screaming man. The murdered one fell, and the murderer cast his knife into the snow and fled. By that time I had re-gained my senses. I am an old man, and easily excited. 1 rushed towards the body of the murdered man, and when I had nearly reached it the body and the dog, whicfh had crept to its master's side, and was licking the dead man's wounds, had disappeared. I stopped and stared at the snow-, where I had seen the dead man lying. With every nerve in my frame quivering with pain and excitement, I reeled and fell fainting in the snow. On tlhe next morning I went to old Squire i Harris's to dinner. The squire and his family were the aristocrats of the place. Thirhome was a grand old mansion on a high hill that overlooked the lovely little valley in wthich the village nestled. It was the habit of the squire to give a dinner once a month to all of hiF. friends in the village. I was one of his particular friends and owed many a kindness to the good old man. On that morning I trudged up the steep path to the hall, as it was always called by the village folks. On my way I heard a noise in the thick undergrowth that bound the path on either side. I stopped, thinking I might surprise a marauder in the squire's ground. I pushed aside the bushes, and upon looking through saw only a dog. But, Heaven's above! It was the same dog I had seen the previous night. The same fierce bulldog. My horror and astonishment caused me to let the bushes slip from my grasp, and the snapping of the twigs made the dog utter a low, vicious growl and run frantically at the place where I stood. Having nothing to defend myself with against the dog, I became very much alarmed at my danger. With a savage growl the dog leaped the hedge, and would have attacked me had not a harsh voice called out at the moment, "Down, sir; down!' The animal immediately crouched and cringed at the feet of a gentleman who sud- denly appeared from around a curve in the path. The gentleman, politely lifting his hat, said, "He is a dangerous animal, sir, but very dear to me. Allow me to apologise to you for the discomfort he has occasioned you. At first I was too much exhausted to speak. When I looked at him what was my horror and surprise to face the man whom I had seen foully murdered, as I thought, the night previous. With staring eyes and mouth open, through excess of terror, my first impulse was to run as fast as my two tired limbs would let me. He looked at me in astonishment at my seeming fear of him, and said, "You are ill; did the dog bite you before I called him?" Courage having returned to me, I answered him "No, sir; I am perfectly well, but very badly winded by the chase." He smiled at my rather grim joke, and then we walked on in silence to the hall. The Squire met us at the door, shook my hand cordially, and introduced me to my com- panion. My companion's name I found was Randolph. I went on into the Squire's library, and after we had smoked a cigar I asked the aquire who and what Randolph was. He told me that he was a lawyer. He had lived most of his life at Cleveland Ohio, but on some account he had left the place and wanted to settle in our village. He had brought a letter of introduction to the squire, and was a guest in the house until he could make final arrangements for the purchase of a house of his own. I then told the squire what I bad seen the night before. He laughed at my fears, and jestingly told me that I was a little daft. I answered him with a very serious face, and told him Randolph was the man I had seen, and that the dog was the same one, too. We then went into dinner. It was dark when we bade our genial host good-night. Randolph touched me on the arm as I turned to go, and said he would walk down to the village with me on his way to his tavern. I could not object, but cold chills crept over me at he thought of walking alone at night with a murdered man. We started down, the poa.th, with that fiendish dog following at our heels. As we neared the bottcm of the hill the moon ro-e. The moonlight gradually spread over the valley. The snow-covered houses below us, the glorious night, and the strange appear- ance of the earth under the ghastly light of the moon, in addition to the companionship of a man whom I had seen murdered, induced me to screw my courage up. I stopped, turned to my companion, and, with a. quaking hand laid upon hi? shoulder, ques- tioned him why he had left a. large city to bury himself in this out-of-the-way village. Mr. Maywood," he said, I was a suc- cessful lawyer in Cleveland. I was rich. I had made a name among my colleagues. I had a. wife, a beautiful, lovely girl. My wife's j brother is the cause of my refuge in this place. He wa-i a clerk in a banking-house. Like a great many men, he began to gamble. He became a defaulter. I, to hide hiE, zlam-e and for my wife's sake, paid the amount he had stolen. She was ignorant of her brother's theft. The brother returned my kindness one day by stealing from me. I &ent him away in anger. Before he left the room he insulted me. I struck him. "My wife took her brother's part, and deserted me on account of my cruelty to him, as Fhe believed it. That man has attempted three times to take my life. I was obliged to leave Cleveland and seek refuge from his murderous hand. My heart was broken by my wife's desertion of me, and I only hope for a peaceful death by coming here." I could contain myself no longer. I told Randolph what I had seen the night before. He became pale as death, and with a trembling voice, said: "I have received a warning, too. God for- bid that I will have to leave this haven which I have sought for." "By this time we had reached my door. His tavern was across the square. I bade him good-night and went in. I had hardly been in a minute when I heard three or four loud screams of agony and fear. I rushed out of doors just in time to see Mr. Randolph throw up his hands in the air, reel, and fall helpless in the snow, his dog crouching by his side, licking his womids. A knife lay in the snow, glistening in the moonlight. A man was running up the road and rapidly disappearing. All had happened as I have related. Lights flared in the village, windows went up with a bang, and in a few moments an excited crowd had collected around the body, and it wa-s borne to the tavern. The murderer was afterwards found, and proved to be the brother of Randolph's wife. He had traced Randolph from place to place, and at last killed him. He was prosecuted and convicted by me. His execution took place ten years ago. Was it not a strange &wry?

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