Read Online Ghost Stories and Mysteries by Ernest Favenc - Free Book Online Page B

him. I will be down your way in a day or two—good bye.”
    Chapter II
    On the second day after Harris’ arrival at home, Jackson rode up to the station, a black boy following him. Harris came out to meet him, and was immediately struck by the gray expression of his friend’s face.
    “Why, Jackson, you look serious enough for half-a-dozen parsons; what is the matter?”
    “Starr has been murdered,” returned Jackson, shortly.
    “Good God! You can’t mean it”
    But Jackson’s face assured him that he did mean it.
    “He was found dead at Yorick’s Lagoon, shot through the head. Here is his black boy, Dick, who found the body.”
    Harris turned to the boy.
    “Mr. Starr been killed?”
    “Yöi; ben shootem here,” touching the top of his head.
    “Had he been robbed too, Jackson?”
    “There were no tracks of any other horse but his own within two miles of the place; no signs of a struggle, and his body appeared to be untouched by anybody after falling.”
    “And the gold?”
    “No gold was found upon him. Some papers, two or three £1-notes, and some loose silver, were all the articles of value on his person. His horse was found with a mob of station horses, but without the valise, which Dick says was on the saddle when he left the Blatherskyte diggings. This is all I can learn from Dick. If you can come we will start back at once. An inquest will be held to-morrow or the day after; Williams has gone up to Blatherskyte.”
    All that was elucidated at the inquest was, that on Monday, the 24th of January, James Starr had left Blatherskyte diggings alone, leaving a stockman named Williams and the black boy, Dick, to come on slowly. He was not again seen alive by anybody then present. Williams stated: That he was a stockman in the employ of the deceased; assisted him to drive a mob of fat cattle to Blatherskyte; that he left the diggings on the same morning, though some hours later, than the deceased did; a storekeeper of Blatherskyte, named Thompson, and the black boy, Dick, accompanied him; went as far as the creek called the “Twenty-mile,” and camped there that night; arrived at Yorick’s Lagoon about twelve o’clock; saw the body of a man lying at the edge of the water; the upper portion of his body was on a log; went over to it and found it to be the body of his employer, James Starr; a bullet wound was visible on the top of his head; appeared to have been dead about twelve hours; the body was quite stiff; deceased had some gold in a valise in the front of his saddle when he left the diggings; did not know the amount; found his horse close to the station, with some other station horses; the saddle was on the horse, but no valise.
    Thompson’s testimony was to exactly the same effect.
    Jawdon, a butcher of Blatherskyte, stated that he paid the deceased the sum of one hundred and sixty ounces of gold, and a cheque for £155, before he left the diggings; it was in payment for cattle sold and delivered to him by the deceased; saw the deceased put it into a valise and strap it on in front of his saddle; made some remark at the time about the horse getting away with it on; Starr left his place immediately afterwards; did not see him stop anywhere as long as he was in sight; believed that he went straight away. Williams, recalled, stated that after finding the body the black boy, who was an excellent tracker, went round with him to look for tracks; saw no fresh tracks of wither horse or man, excepting the track of deceased and his horse; knew the track of deceased’s horse by his having been newly shod on the diggings, and having a very peculiar shaped hoof; could swear to it; had shod the same horse himself at various times; the track of Starr’s horse went straight to the place where the body lay, and from then back to the road, and along it until the horse joined the mob he was found with; the lagoon was a small piece of water, about five miles from the station, close to the road; saw no horse tracks on