the hogs butchered. They declared that they had not bargained for the
slaughter of the hogs, and that they contracted for them in another
place, and would have nothing to do with them here; that he had broken
his contract, and they should demand heavy damages. He sought for the
men who had directed him hither, but they had dispersed as soon as paid,
and no trace of them was to be found. He told the Browns how he had been
deceived, but they denied all knowledge of the affair, and again talked
of damages. The merchant then presented his bill for supplies, and money
advanced to butchers and packers. Our friend not having the money, he
seized on the pork. What could he do? The case was desperate. He had
bought on credit; would his pitiful story satisfy his creditors? His
character was ruined. You may imagine the state of his mind. At this
crisis, the Messrs. Brown took him aside, and told him that since he was
in difficulty, they were willing to befriend him, and to show him how he
could soon make money enough to pay off his creditors. An oath of
secrecy was required and given. They then offered to settle the
merchant's bills, which were very extravagant, and pay him for the pork
in counterfeit money, at twenty per cent., with which he was to buy
stock through the country. In his despair, he consented; a few days
after he was detected, arrested, and tried, under a false name, and
condemned to the Ohio penitentiary. His friends, remaining entirely
ignorant of his fate, began to suspect foul play. The Messrs. Brown
effected his pardon, and hurried him away; but not before he had
contrived to make known his story, and the fact that he was under
restraint among a band of bad men, and that he could not escape without
assistance. He was never heard of more.

"The stranger gave me his address, and requested that I would keep an
eye upon the people who should come there, and if I should see the
Browns, or hear of his unfortunate friend, that I should let him know.
He had visited Lawrenceburgh, because that was the former residence of
these two men, and he hoped to see them; but being disappointed, he was
compelled to go back to the family of the lost neighbour without having
received any intelligence of his fate."

The reader will have seen by this time, that, probably, the whole
transaction was arranged before the man bought the first hoof of that
drove of hogs. Some emissary of the Browns advised him to speculate in
pork; to use