"
"What are you going to do with the guns?" inquired the Commodore.
"To carry them uncased and loaded; substituting in my own two buckshot
cartridges for loose shot," replied Archer. "The Irish are playing the
very devil through this part of the country--we are close to the line of
the great Erie railroad--and they are murdering, and robbing, and I know
not what, for miles around. The last time I was at old Tom's he told me
that but ten days or a fortnight previously a poor Irish woman, who
lived in his village, started to pay a visit to her mother by the self
same road we shall pass to-night; and was found the next morning with
her person brutally abused, kneeling against a fence stone dead,
strangled with her own cambric handkerchief. He says, too, that not a
week passes but some of them are found dead in the meadows, or in the
ditches, killed in some lawless fray; and no one ever dreams of taking
any notice, or making any inquiry about the matter!"
"Is it possible? then keep the guns at hand by all means!"
"Yes! but this time we will violate my rule about the copper caps--there
is no rule, you are aware, but what has some exception--and the
exception to this of mine is, always take off your copper caps before
getting into a wagon; the jar will occasionally explode them, an upset
will undoubtedly.
Pages:
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208