Devil's Gap [pp. 225-233]

Devil's Gap.
and beloved, and deep and bitter the
muttered curses upon his destroyer, as
the mutilated remains of Harry Duval
were borne slowly toward the village by
some of these rough, warm-hearted men,
whilst those remaining separated into
parties of two or three, and anxiously explored every nook and recess of the surrounding thicket.
The day was far advanced when they
returned, weary and depressed in spirit,
to their homes. Long and diligently
had they searched, but not a single
trace of the murderer was to be found:
not a circumstance had come to light
which might lead to his identification,
save that it was evident the deceased had
met his death by a dastardly stroke from
thee rear; his skull being fractured by repeated blows, and that the instrument
with which the wound had been inflicted,
a heavy knotted club, with the victim's
blood still fresh upon it, had been found
lineament.
With hands clasped upon her beating
heart, Blanche gazed upon his terror stricken face. "What is it? You
bring me news of Harry,-is he sick! in danger? Speak man!-for the love
of hteaven, tell me he is safe." But ere
the name of her beloved could pass his
trembling lips, she had read it in his face.
It had come. Her dark forebodings
were changed to worse reality; and si lently she sank, crushed beneath the
weight of her overpowering grief, —un conscious in the arms of her attendant.
Rapidly spedo the fearful news from
mouth to mouth throughout the village;
and in a shorter time than it occupies to
relate, a dense group of every age and
sex was assembled upon the roadside,
near the centre of the village, from whose
excited tones and gestures it was evident
the atrocious crime just brought to light
formed the topic of discussion.
Conspicuous amidst the crowd towered
the spare form of Ernest Moreton, in
whose animated voice and wilder gestures the most intense excitement was
apparent, as his vehement denunciation
of the murderer rose above the general execration. Assenting to the proposition that they should at once proceed
to the scene of the calamity, he joined a
body of men, who, separating themselves
from the increasing throng, moved rapidly forward, in the direction of the "Devil's
Gap." Ere they had reached the fatal
spot, Ernest, with a hasty suggestion
that the murderer might still be lurking
in the neighborhood, proposed that they
should search the surrounding woods;
and without awaiting their assent, he
struck rapidly off from the road, and was
lost to view in the depths of the forest
beyond.
The greater number of his companions,
however, animated by the fearful curiosity a spectacle of horror so frequently excites in the uncultivated mind, held their
o nward course and in a few moments
stood upon the scene of the murder.
Many were the-tears shed in tribute to
the manaly virtues of him so well known
near by.
It was apparent, too, that he who did
the deed, to procure this formidable
weapon, had been obliged partly to
wrench it from a stout sapling, close by
the roadside, having in the attempt to
cut it, broken his knife, ere it was
severed from the stalk, where a fragment
of the blade was found still fixed in the
hard unyielding wood.
Naught beside this trifling fact appeared which might lead to the detection of
the criminal. Well might he deem himself secure. No living eye had seen-no
tongue was there to tell who did the
deed. But the all-seeing Providence
was witness of the crime, in whose inscrutable ways, trifles the lightest, most
unimportant, become the instruments of
its unwavering justice.
The almost unremitting syncope of
Blanche, from the first moment she
guessed the fatal truth, yielded at length
only to the wild delirium of fe,er.
Nothing of import could be gathered
from her incoherent ravings, relative to
the visit of her lover the preceding day,
1856.]
231
pedlar stood before her, breathless with
baste, and with horror depicted in every
X.
4.