Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 July 1883 — AN ABSCONDING DEBTOR. [ARTICLE]

AN ABSCONDING DEBTOR.

“He isn’t here!” “He’s across the river!” “He was a-goin’ up on‘skates on the ice, to take the stage coach at East Hardup. You’ll have to go and see him there, for he ain’t a-comin’ home again. You must be pretty quick, for he was a-goin’ to start not far from this time.” This was evidently a pretty-well-con-sidered scheme of Mr. Tupling’s, and indicated that he must have something somewhere worth taking a good deal of pains for. This could not well be anything except money, which accordingly I presumed he had about his person, to the full amount of the receipts from his swindling sales,' very likely £5,000. On skates, I meditated; that is not a bad idea; it’s glorious skating all the way up, and for such a slippery trick so slippery a means is very suitable. I determined that I would take a hasty supper, procure a pair of skates and a stout stick, and start off alone after our sly friend John; for skating being a “specialty” of mine, I made no doubt that if he should have set out I could Overhaul him on the river. So, meditating and deciding, I reached the hotel, and finding the proprietor I addressed him in haste: “Landlord. I want you to do four things a little faster than they were ever done before. First, get me my supper. Second, send out and buy me a pair of good skates; and also, third, a stout straight cane. Fourth, furnish ms a pocket-flask of brandy.” “It shall be done in fifteen minutes, sir.”

He disappeared with sp.-ed, and it was done—l mean the supper—and before my short and rapid meal was complete the remaining articles were at hand; and, paying my bill, putting the skates and fltek in my pocket, fortifying myself with comforter, oyercoat, gloves and mittens, and grasping my stick, I was off. It was now between b and 6 o’clock, and bitter cold, with a sharp wind from the northeast. Settling my head well down in my coat collar, as if I was trying to cover my ears with my shoulders, with hands in pockets,, and cap drawn over my eyes, I timed northward, bent low, headed across the river to round the neat pciaiit above, and struck out across the glimmering silent ice, with long, steady, rapid, sweeping strokes. My skates, fortunately, though quite new, wore not too sharp, and,' as the ice was extremely hard, they ran over it with very little o: the scoring cut which is so apt to diminish the speed, and for twenty minutes I sped hastily on at a moderate pace, until I should get a little eajnr in my work. There had been Bo much skating that the many tracks along my route afforded me no indications as to my predecessor. From Muddleton to Hardup is twenty-five miles by the course of the river, but I might decrease this distance by a mile ortwo by taking advantage of knowledge of the river and “cutting off corners.* But Tupling doubtless knew the same, and my object, if attained at all, rnhst be so by desperate, stra ghtforvard racing. Away I went, sweeping by the wide, bare meadows, past the gorges in the bills, whirling around point after point, stretching in straight <tines from one to the next, while the reduplicated ringing strokes of my skates made a monotonous music for me, and I could hear the little fragments, cat out by an occasional heavy foot-tnrpst, blown crackling backward by the wind. ( Now, I could see upon the river, halfway Up the reach, the figure of a man skating along at a good pace. It must be Tumbling! Now, at last, I put forth the very utmost of my strength; and, going at a tremendous pace, was rapidly overhauling tl&- dishonest bankrupt. I was almost -within shaking distance, when he must have heard the ringing of my skate-iron s; for suddenly looking over hi» shoulder he saw me, and inuteutfy redoubled his speed, which con»is uni me that he was my man. Away w® flow for nearly a mile in perfect sfl®sep> except for the scoring and ringing skate-strokes; but I steadily closed tertfl as we trlmed and swept northwurd again, round (he bend in the bow ®t vtriehtbe prison stands, I spoke: "TWphn;.', hold hard! I want to speak floyMrt* But he slackened not his smmL lawrtossed to gain, and was just consMuriag whether I would knock him ten with my sth •k or lay hands on hbl wfow, taming hu bead, he aud-

denly discharged first one pistol-shot and then another; but, firing over his shoulder, missed me. I was even already lifting my stick, and would have returned his compliment unless he had “winged” me with a further use of his revolver, when at once the gray ice over which we had been gliding disappeared, and I seemed to be skating on water. It was dead black ice. An air hole! An instantaneous horrid thrill of fright shot through me. My speed was too great to turn aside, but with an instinctive impulse I shut my eyes and sprang desperately up from the ice with both feet.

The tremendous speed of my former motion and the effect of that terrific leap swung me x Over ten feet of black, open water, and threw me with a severe fall flat upon the thin but tough black ice beyond. As I leaped I heartd aery—the crackling of broken ice—a plunge— Tupling had driven blindly into the ghastly open abyss! I had slid some distance beyond the spot where I fell. Stunned and hurt, I arose with difficulty. A glance showed me that we were opposite the entrance of that singular body of water called W Cove, the warmer outflow from whose springs, passing through a narrow channel into the river, had kept upon the death-trap within whose fearful circle Tuppling had risen to the surface, and, the swift current carrying him to the lower side of the orifice, he was sustaining himself by his arms, but made ineffectual struggles to creep out upon the thin ice, which cracked and broke as he bore upon it. “Hold still!” I cried; “I’ll get a hurdle !” So I hurried to the next fence and was returning with the hurdle dragging behind me, when it occurred to me that circumstances facilitated the making of good conditions with Friend John, since he was now in a manner at my mercy. So I halted and addressed him. “Are you John Tupling?” “Yes.” “Will you settle Mr. Spiggleton’s bill if I get you out ?” He answered evasively, “Oh! are you going to let a man drown before your eyes? Shove me that rail, will yer ?” “Agree to settle that bill in full, and here’s the rail; if not, why you must get out yourself. Come, I can’t wait all night here; I have business at H.” And, dropping the rail, I turned as if to depart; not that I would have left the rogue to drown, but it was as well to let him think so.

So he very sullenly agreed to my conditions; upon which I spread myself flat on the ice, crawled out until I eould reach him with the rail and held it as firmly as I could, while he raised himself upon it and cautiously crawled out, resting partly upon the rail and partly upon the ice. As he scrambled along to firmer footing, such was the intensity of the cold that every time his mitten or his knee touched the ice, all dripping as he was with water, they froze fast to it; and when at last he stood erect, which he was only able to do by my help, and walked stiffly and feebly toward the shore, we had nrt reached the bank before he was clothed frem head to foot with crackling ice armor. He would fain have sat down to rest, but he Would never have risen, and it was only by threats and entreaties that I succeeded in leading him to the door of the nearest house, where, upon knocking, we were hospitably admitted and placed forthwith before a cheerful fire. The bustling dame and her husband both agreed with me that Tupling must at once go to bed, for he was almost speechless. When, however, Mr. Allen (our host) and I attempted to strip him, he would have resisted. Without attending to his efforts, however, we quickly disrobed him, when his reluctance was explained. He wore a belt with a considerable sum in gold sewed up in it under his clothes. But we him, rubbed him down with warm towels, gave him a dose out of my brandy-flask and it was not long before he was asleep. On emptying his pockets, that his clothes might be dried, I took the liberty of examining his exchequer, whereupon he-appeared to be possessed of about £5,000 all told. From this I abstracted the amount for which I stipulated with him, and. having deposited the same with my own slender pecunium, I went to sleep, pretty well fatigued, but with a joyful mind.— London paper.