Tales of a Vanishing RiverReed, Earl H. (Earl Howell)
History
Tales of a Vanishing River
Reed, Earl H. (Earl Howell)
Illinois -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Kankakee River (Ind. and Ill.) -- Fiction; Short stories, American
“About noon, on Monday, a posse was formed by the Hon. Cyrus Butts, our
gentlemanly and efficient sheriff. The posse, consisting of three
prominent and well known citizens, Oliver K. Gardner, Silas B. Kendall
and Elmer Dinwiddie, accompanied by the sheriff, made a circuit of the
town. They ascertained that the mysterious stranger had stopped at the
pleasant little home of Mr. Mike Carney, the genial and well known
butcher of our town, and asked for a drink of water, which was given
him. He had then taken a southerly direction along the section line
road. The posse procured Toppington Smith’s mottled blood hound and put
the intelligent animal on the trail of the fleeing burglar. The pursuit
continued for about twelve miles. The fugitive was evidently making a
bee line along the section road for the river marshes. A team was met on
the road, with a load of baled hay, and impressed into service. All of
the bales but two were unloaded and left by the roadside. The two bales
were retained on the wagon for use as a barricade in case of a revolver
battle with the burglar.
“Drivers of teams, met along the route, reported seeing a man enter the
woods before they met him, and go back into the road a long ways behind
them after they had passed. The variations in the course taken by the
hound confirmed this.
“About ten o’clock at night there was a full moon. The trail left the
road and led into some thick underbrush, near a small slough. Some smoke
issued from the brush, where the fugitive had evidently built a fire and
expected to spend the night. The place was surrounded and the posse
cautiously advanced, but the burglar was gone. It was thought that the
cunning malefactor had got wind of his pursuers, that he had turned
aside and lighted this fire in the brush with a view of delaying and
baffling those behind him with artful strategy.
“The hound left the brush, and a few minutes later a tall figure, with a
light gray coat, was seen a few hundred yards away on a bare ridge in
the moonlight. It was unquestionably the fugitive and the hound was with
him. The posse opened fire with revolvers, but at such a distance it was
futile. The man and the dog disappeared over the ridge into the woods.
The burglar had escaped, and the dog had evidently joined forces with
him.
“Further pursuit that night was considered hopeless. The posse slept at
a farm house and resumed the search Tuesday morning. They found the dog
tied to a tree near the edge of the big marsh, there were tracks in the
soft mud at the margin of the slough, and an old boat belonging to a
farmer in the vicinity was gone. There were marks in the mud showing
where the boat had been shoved out to the water.
“The pursuit was abandoned and the posse returned home. A full
description of the robber was sent broadcast, and it is thought that his
capture is only a matter of time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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