A WITNESS’ STORY.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 473, 21 May 1890, Page 4

A WITNESS’ STORY.

By W. R. Kellerd.

iHU RING the month of February, 1553, Seth Damon, of Acton, instituted an action at law against Gabriel Butterworth, of the same town, for the recovery of issasssssssssssi thirty thousand dollars, of which he claimed that said Butterworth had defrauded him. The circumstance# were these:— Butterworth owned and kept the principal shop in Acton, and though he had never been regarded as an exemplary gentleman, his honour in business had not been impugned. Those who had the faculty of looking upon the under-currents of human actions decided that he was a man not bound by honour, but who understood the lows of self-interest too well to be guilty of small meannesses in business. What he was capable of doing on a grand scale was not mooted until the occurrence of which I am about to speak. Seth Damon hod removed from Edson to Acton in the autumn, and bad purchased the ironvorks. Shortly after concluding the purchase he had a payment of thirty thousand dollars to make, and late on a Saturday afternoon he arrived from New York with the money—part of it in banknotes and part of it in gold. When he arrived he found that the parties to whom the money wub to be paid had left town, and would nob return till Monday. Mr Butterworth had the only reliable safety-vault in town, and to Mr Butterworth Damon took the thirty thousand dollars, asking permission to lodge it in his vault over the Sabbath, which permission was readily and cheerfully granted. During Sunday night the of the village were aroused by the alarm of fire; and upon starting out it was found that the alarm came from Butterworth’s shop. But Mr Butterworth had been active, fie had discovered the fire in season, and, with the assistance of his boys, had put it out before much damage bad been done. Upon looking over the premises it was found that the fire had not only been the evident work of an incendiary, but that it had been set in several different places. * How fortunate, 5 said the owner, ' that I discovered it in season.’

But very soon another discovery was made. The safety-vault had been broken open, and every dollar it had contained etolen away ! Hero was alarm and consternation. Gabriel Butterworth seemed fit to grow crazy. ♦For myself I care not,’ he cried. * A few hundreds were all I had in there ; but my friend had a great sum !’ Immediate search for the robber or robbers was instituted, and word was sent far and near to all sheriffs and their deputies, and to the police of the cities. Mow it had so happened that on that verj Sunday evening - or, I may say, Sunday night, for it was near midnight, I, John Watson, had been returning from my brother’s in Dunstable. I had left my pony trap at the stable, and on my way to my boarding-house I passed the shop of Mr Butterworth. In the back yard of the shop was a horse trough, and, being thirsty, I Btepped round that way to get a draught of water. As I stooped to drink at the spout of the fountain I saw a gleam of light through a crevice in the shutters of one of the windows. Curiosity impelled me to go and peer through ; for I wondered who could be in there at that hour on a Sunday night. The crevice was quite large, made by a wearing away of the edges of the shutters where they had been caught by the hooks that held them back when open, and through it I looked into the shop. I looked upon the wall within which the safetyvault was built; and I saw the vault open, and I saw Gabriel Butterworth at work therein. I saw him put largo packages into his breast pocket, and I saw him bring out two or three small canvas bags and set them upon the floor by the door that opened toward his dwelling. As I saw him approaching this outer door a second time I thought he might come out, and I went away. It was an hour afterward that I heard the alarm of fire; and it was not until the following morning that I heard of the robbery of the safe. I was in a critical position ; but I had a duty to perform. 1 went to Mr Damon, and told him what I had seen; and also gave him liberty to call upon me for my testimony in public when he should need it. Until I should be so called upon I was to hold my silence. While the officers wore hunting hither and thither, Mr Damon kept a strict watch upon the movements of Mr Butterworth, and at length detected him in the act of depositing a large sum of money in a bank in Buffalo. His action immediately followed, and Butterworth was arrested.

This was the way matters stood when I was summoned to appear before the Grand Jury at Wiltonburg. I went there in company with Mr Damon, and secured lodgings at the Sabine House. It was a small inn, well and comfortably kept, and frequented by patrons of moderate means. There were two public-houses of more fashionable pretensions in the place. It was on the afternoon of Monday, the 14th day of February, that I took quarters at the Sabine house, and after tea I requested the landlord to buiid a fire in my room, which he did, and he also furnished me with a good lamp. It was eight o’clock, and I sat at the table engaged in reading, when someone rapped upon my door. I said, ‘Come in,’ and a young man named Laban Shaw entered. This Laban Shaw I had known very well as a clerk of Gabriel Butterworth, but I had never been intimate with him from the fact that I had never liked him. He must have seen the look of displeasure upon my face, for ho quickly said—

• Pardon me, Mr Watson. I don’t mean to intrude. I have come down to be present at the examination to-morrow—summoned by Butterworth’s man, of course—and I got here too late to get a room with a fire in it; and, worse still, I must take a room with another bed in it, and with.a stranger for company. And so, may I just warm my lingers and toes by your fire, and leave my carpet bag under your bed ?’ He laughed when he spoke of the carpet bag; but yet he did not know what sort of a faculty his stranger room-mate might have for getting up and walking off in the night. Of course I granted him his request, and he put his carpet bag under my bed, and then sat down by my fire, and we chatted sociably enough for half an hour or more without once alluding to the business which had brought the pair of us to Wiltonburg. His conversation was pleasant, and I really came to like J the fellow; and I thought to myself that I had been prejudiced against him without cause. At length he arose, bade me good night, and went away. -Shortly afterward I retired. I had been in bed but a little while, when another rap upon my door disturbed me ; and to my. demand of what was wanted I received answer, from Laban Shaw. He bade me not to light a lamp. ' He had only come for bi? nightgown. He could get it

in the dark. I arose and unlocked my door, and his apologies were many and earnest. He always slept, in winter, in a flannel nightgown, and he had thoughtlessly left it in his carpet bag. He was sorry—very sorry. Ho had thought to try to sleep without it rather than distuib me, but his room was cold, and I cut him short, and told him there was no need of further apology, and while he fumbled over his bag, I went to the fire to makodoublo assurance that it was all right. I offered to light a match for him, but he said he had got his night-dress and all was right. He then went out, and closing and locking the door after him, I got back into bed. But I was not to sleep. I had been very sleepy when Shaw disturbed me ; but an entirely different feeling possessed me now. First came a nervous twitching in my limbs—a ‘crawly’ feeling, as some express it-that sensation which induces gaping and yawning, bub which no amount of yawning could now subdue. By andbye a sense of nightmare stole upon me: and, though perfectly awake, a sense as of impending danger possessed me. At length, so uncomfortable did I become in my recumbent position, that 1 arose and lighted my lamp, resolved to replenish my fire, and dress myself, and see if I could read away my nervous fit. My lamp was lighted, and as I returned to the bedside for my slippers my attention was attracted by a string which lay upon the carpet—a string leading from the bed to the door. I stooped to examino it, and found it fast at both ends. I brought tho lamp and took a more careful survey. The string was a fine silken trout-line, new and strong, one end of which disappeared beneath tho bed and the other beneath th® door.

In my then present condition I was suspicious of evil, and my senses were painfully keen. Raising the hanging edge of the coverlet, I looked under the bed. The carpet bag which Laban Shaw had left lay there, partly open, with the silken line leading out from it. What could it mean? Had the man accidentally carried the end of tho line away with his nightdress without noticing it. I drew the bag out from beneath the bed, and as I he’d its jaws apart I saw within a double-barrelled pistol, both hammers cocked, bright percussion caps gleaming upon the tubes, while the silken line, with double end, was made fast to the triggers ! And I saw that the muzzles of the pistol barrels were inserted into the end of an oblong box, or case, of galvanised iron. And I comprehended, too, that a very slight pull upon that string might have discharged the pistols, and, furthermore, that a man outside of my door might have done that thing ! For a little time my hands trembled so that I dared not touch th® contrivance ; but at length I composed myself, and went at work. First, I cut the string with my knife ; and then, as carefully as possible, I eased down the hammers of the pistol, after which I drew it from the iron case.

I had just done this when I heard a step in the hall outside my door. Quick as thought I sprang up, and turning the key, threw the door open ; before me, revealed by the light of my lamp, stood Laban Shaw. He was frightened when he saw me, and trembled like an aspen. I was stronger than he at any time, and now he was as a child in my hands. I grasped him by the collar, and dragged him into my room ; then pointing the double-barrelled pistol at his breast, I told him I would shoot him as I would 6hoot a dog if he gave me occasion. He was abject and terrified. Like a whipped cur he crawled at my feet and begged for mercy. His master had hired him to do it with promise of great reward. It had transpired that my testimony before the jury would be conclusive of Butterworth’s guilt, and Butterworth had taken this means to get rid of me. In his great terror the poor accomplice made a full con fession ; and when he had told all I released my grasp. He begged that I would let him go; but I dared not—my duty would not allow it. I rang my bell, and in time the ostler, who slept in the office, answered my summons. I sent him for an officer, and at length had the satisfaction of seeing my prisoner led safely away. On the following morning the carpet bag was taken before the Grand Jury and the iron case examined by an experienced chemist, assisted by an old armourer from the arsenal.. It was found to contain a fulminate of mercury mixed with bits of iron ; and it was tho opinion of both the chemist and the armourer that the power of tho explosive agent, had it been ignited as it was placed, beneath my bed, would not only have been sufficient to blow me to atoms, but that it would have literally stripped and shivered to fragments all the house above it! And a single pull of that silken string would have oeen sufficient to this horrible end ! And, but for my nervous waking— my incubus of foreboding—the destroyer would have come; the fatal cord would have been touched, the mine sprung, and I should have been launched into eternity as upon the lightning’s bolt! And so Gabriel Butterworth did nob Erocure the destruction of my testimony, ufc through that testimony the Grand Jury found cause for indictment of far graver character than had at first been anticipated, and of those graver charges ho was convicted. Seth Damon received back the full sum he had intrusted to the false man’s care, and shortly afterward I entered into business with him, and to-day Seth Damon and I are partners. Laban Shaw came out of prison and went to Idaho. I have not heard of him since. Gabriel Butterworth did not live to serve out his full term of sentence.