me. They were at length taken
to the county seat, not far distant, and, on a preliminary examination,
were bound over to appear at the next term of the District Court, and
put in the county jail. The majority of the people believed that the
perpetrators of this crime had been arrested and were now in durance
vile; the excitement soon passed away, and very little was said about
it.

"It was at this time," said my informant, "that I made the mistake of my
life. I had worked hard on the farm for several months, and thought I
would take a lay off. I felt it was due me. I now made up my mind to
have a time. I went to town and soon fell in with a harlot. I got to
drinking. I am very fond of strong drink; it has been my ruin. I became
intoxicated, and during this time I must have betrayed my secret to this
wicked woman. A large reward had been offered for the murderer of these
old people. This woman who kept me company having thus obtained my
secret, went to the city marshal and made an arrangement that for half
of the reward offered she would show him the man who had committed the
crime. This was agreed to. While I was drinking and having a good time
with my 'fast woman' three men were on the road to the farm where I had
been working. They found and dug up the old bucket containing what money
I had left in it, and the axe. All this I learned at the trial. I was
arrested and bound over to the District Court on a charge of murder in
the first degree. The officers had to keep me secreted for some time, as
there was strong talk of lynching. In due time I had my trial and got a
life sentence."

I asked him if he had any hope of pardon.

"Oh yes," said he, "in the course of eight or ten years I will be able
to get out once more."

"What became of the tramps that came so near being compelled to suffer
the penalty of your crime?"

"They were released as soon as I was arrested, a snug little sum of
money was raised for them, a new suit of clothes purchased, and they
went on their way rejoicing, thinking themselves creatures of luck."

As we sat together in a secluded place in the mines, with the faint
light of my miner's lamp falling on his hideous face, the cool,
deliberate manner in which he related his atrocious doings, the fiendish
spirit he displayed, led me to regard him as one among the most debased
and hardened criminals I had met in the mines--a human being utterly
devoid of moral nature--a very devil in the form of ma