THE 3-1RDERER'S ORDEAL.



  I Murder! murder! help! help !"
  I jumped up, seized my revolvers, and darted out into the open
air. The cries and screams still continued, aociting from a point on
the bend of the river about a hundred rods netow. in a minute I
was joined by five others, all well armed, and together we ran, as
fast as we could, to the place from whence the sound proceeded.-
When we arrived there, at least thirty men were collected in and
about the tent of the dark man 1 have been describing, and he him-
self it was who had given the alarm. His partner and companion
had been murdered and robbed, he himself had been slightly cut
across the face, and gashed
on the left arm, and was all
excitement, lamenting his                  .
dearest friend, and vowing-
vea zzCnce against the assas-
sin. It was sometime before
we could get at the particu-
lars, and then we learned
that both had been sleeping
side by side, when an un-
known robber had crawled 1
under the canvass, stabbed
one to the heart, and taken
a large bag of gold ftrom A DESPAIRING SHFRIFK CAME FROM THE 1.If OF
                                       THE (ILILTY WSBh1CH.
under his head. With this
he was escaping, when the present narrator awoke and seized him
and received the wounds which had compelled him to relinquish h:4
hold. Lights were brought, and there, sure enough, was the bloody
confirmation of all that had been related.
  I shall make no attempt to portray the intense excitement; the