Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 April 1885 — A Man Who Skulked. [ARTICLE]

A Man Who Skulked.

Biding out from Chattanooga towards Bridgeport on horseback I came across a native who had a seat on a rock quite a piece above the road. If he hadn't rattled a stone down just as I came opposite he might have escaped undetected. He had a gun across his knees, and I called to him: “Pretty good hunting around here?” “May be,” he answered. “What do you find?” “Nuthin’ yit.” He seemed so cranky that I was about to ride on, when he rose up and descended to the road. He didn’t look a bit good-natured, and he held his shot-gun in a very careless manner as he said: “Stranger, you mought have come frum Chattanooga!” “Yes.” “You mought have had company part o’ the way.” “Yes. A man on a mule rode with me as far as the forks, half a mile back.” “Man with reddish ha’r —long nose — whiskers on his chin—swears a good deal?” “That’s him.” “And, hang him, he turned off, did he?" “Yes—took the right-hand road.” “Jist like him—jist like the onorery ’possum he is! Stranger, that 'eye feller shot my father more’n two years ago, and he was the game I was waitin’ fur f He’s got thrse different roads to go an’ come by, and jist as sure as I’m watchin’ one, he’ll go by t’other. He’s fooled me all summer long in this way, and I’m gittin’ that desperit that if I miss him to-morrer I shall have to go up to his clearing and take a shot at him as he sots in the door smokin’ his pipe! Stranger, what’s yer real, downright, Christian opinion of a man as will put another man out of the way he has ine!" —Jf. Quad.