_The Excitement in the Village._--_The Coroner's Investigation._--_The
Secret Ambuscade._
Samuel Waring knelt down beside the form of the old man, and laid his
trembling hand upon the heart that had ceased to throb forever.
"He is dead!" he uttered, in a low, subdued voice, as though he too
was impressed with the solemnity of the scene.
Bucholz uttered a half articulate moan, and grasped more firmly in
his nerveless hand the pistol which he carried.
One of the neighbors who had accompanied the party was about to
search the pockets of the murdered man, when Farmer Allen, raising
his hand, cried:
"Stop! This is work for the law. A man has been murdered, and the
officers of the law must be informed of it. Who will go?"
Samuel Waring and Bucholz at once volunteered their services and
started towards the village to notify the coroner, and those whose
duty it was to take charge of such cases.
Farmer Allen gazed at the rigid form of the old man lying there
before him, whose life had been such an enigma to his neighbors, then
at the retreating forms of the two men who were slowly wending their
way to the village, and a strange, uncertain light came into his eyes
as he thus looked. He said nothing, however, of the thoughts that
occupied his mind, and after bidding the others watch beside the
body, he returned to his own home and informed the frightened females
of what had been discovered.
The news spread with wonderful rapidity, and soon the dreadful
tidings were the theme of universal conversation. A man rushed into
the saloon in which the old man and Bucholz had drank their beer, and
cried out:
"The old man that was in here to-night has been murdered!"
Instantly everybody were upon their feet. The old gentleman was
generally known, and although no one was intimately acquainted with
him, all seemed to evince an interest in the cause of his death.
Many rumors were at once put in circulation, and many wild and
extravagant stories were soon floating through the crowds that
gathered at the corners of the streets.
Samuel Waring and Bucholz had gone directly to the office of the
coroner, and informing him of the sad affair, had proceeded to the
drug-store in the village, with the view of having the wounds upon
his face dressed. They were found to be of a very slight character,
and a few pieces of court-plaster dexterously applied were all that
seemed to be required.
By this time the coroner had succeeded in impanneling a jury to
accompany him to the scene of the murder, and they proceeded in a
body toward the place. The lights from the lanterns, held by those
who watched beside the body, directed them to the spot, and they soon
arrived at the scene of the tragedy.
The coroner immediately took charge of the body, and the physician
who accompanied him made an examination into the cause of his death.
Upon turning the body over, two ugly gashes were found in the back of
his head, one of them cutting completely through the hat which
covered it and cutting off a piece of the skull, and the other
penetrating several inches into the brain, forcing the fractured
bones of the skull inward.
It seemed evident that the first blow had been struck some distance
from the place where the body had fallen, and that the stunned man
had staggered nearly thirty feet before he fell. The second blow,
which was immediately behind the left ear, had been dealt with the
blunt end of an axe, and while he was prostrate upon the ground.
Death must have instantly followed this second crushing blow, and he
had died without a struggle. Silently and stealthily the assassins
must have come upon him, and perhaps in the midst of some pleasant
dream of a boyhood home; some sweet whisper of a love of the long
ago, his life had been beaten out by the murderous hand of one who
had been lying in wait for his unsuspecting victim.
From the nature of the wounds the physician at once declared that
they were produced by an axe. The cut in the back of the head, and
from which the blood had profusely flowed, was of the exact shape of
the blade of an instrument of that nature--and the other must have
been produced by the back of the same weapon. The last blow must have
been a crushing one, for the wound produced was several inches deep.
An examination of the body revealed the fact that the clothing had
been forcibly torn open, as several buttons had been pulled from the
vest which he wore, in the frantic effort to secure the wealth which
he was supposed to have carried upon his person.
In the inner pocket of his coat, which had evidently been overlooked
by the murderers, was discovered a worn, yellow envelope, which, on
being opened, was found to contain twenty thousand dollars in German
mark bills, and about nine hundred and forty dollars in United States
government notes. His watch had been wrenched from the guard around
his neck, and had been carried off, while by his side lay an empty
money purse, and some old letters and newspapers.
Tenderly and reverently they lifted the corpse from the ground after
this examination had been made, William Bucholz assisting, and the
mournful procession bore the body to the home which he had left in
the morning in health and spirits, and with no premonitory warning of
the fearful fate that was to overtake him upon his return.
The lights flashed through the darkness, and the dark forms, outlined
in their glimmering beams, seemed like beings of an unreal world; the
bearers of the body, with their unconscious burden, appeared like a
mournful procession of medieval times, when in the solemn hours of
the night the bodies of the dead were borne away to their final
resting-place.
They entered the house and laid their burden down. The lids were now
closed over those wild, staring eyes, and the clothing had been
decently arranged about the rigid form. The harsh lines that had
marked his face in life, seemed to have been smoothed away by some
unseen hand, and a smile of peace, such as he might have worn when a
child, rested upon those closed and pallid lips, clothing the
features with an expression of sweetness that none who saw him then
ever remembered to have seen before.
After depositing the body in the house, several of the parties
proceeded to search the grounds in the immediate vicinity of the
murder. Near where the body had fallen a package was found,
containing some meat which the frugal old man had evidently purchased
while in the city. Another parcel, which contained a pair of what are
commonly known as overalls, apparently new and unworn, was also
discovered. An old pistol of the "pepper-box" pattern, and a rusty
revolver, the handle of which was smeared with blood, was found near
where the body was lying. No instrument by which the murder could
have been committed was discovered, and no clue that would lead to
the identification of the murderers was unearthed. They were about to
abandon their labor for the night, when an important discovery was
made, which tended to show conclusively that the murder had been
premeditated, and that the crime had been in preparation before the
hour of its execution.
By the side of the narrow path which led through the woods, stood a
small cedar tree upon the summit of a slight rise in the ground. Its
spare, straggling branches were found to have been interwoven with
branches of another tree, so as to form a complete screen from the
approach from the railroad, in the direction which Henry Schulte must
inevitably come on his way from the depot. Here, undoubtedly, the
murderer had been concealed, and as the old man passed by,
unconscious of the danger that threatened him, he had glided
stealthily after him and struck the murderous blow.
These, and these only, were the facts discovered, and the question as
to whose hand had committed the foul deed remained a seemingly
fathomless mystery.
Midnight tolled its solemn hour, and as the tones of the bell that
rang out its numbers died away upon the air, the weary party wended
their way homeward, leaving the dead and the living in the little
farm-house upon the "Hill," memorable ever after for the dark deed of
this dreary night.