those Dearborn
county fellows glad to leave their nests, which they have feathered at
my expense."

It was the next day after this, that I made known to Mr. Munger the
fact, that a bribe had been proffered me to swear against T., in favour
of the brothers. Some two days after, I received the note containing the
information respecting the hidden treasure. See the work above
mentioned.

These circumstances, with the excitement occasioned by the loss of the
package, created a great sensation, especially with the friends of the
colonel and his brother. Fear and jealousy were at work with the whole
banditti of public swindlers. They knew not on whom to fix the
imputation of purloining their valuable papers. Cunningham was
suspected, and likewise Spurlock, another old confederate, who had
frequently visited the room of the unfortunate lady. Sturtivant, one of
their principal engravers, was thought to be implicated, and even one of
their pettifoggers was on the list of the proscribed. They did not fix
upon me till several days after. The circumstances of this suspicion I
will now detail.

The Lawrenceburgh members had not complied with their promises. One was
waiting to turn his produce into cash, and when he was ready to fulfil
his engagement, no action could be taken, because his fellow townsmen
had their excuses for delay and non-concurrence. The Philadelphia
merchant had arrived, but suddenly left, as the report says, "between
two days." Two others of the intended bail were among the missing. I
carried a letter to another, who owned a flat-boat. I went on board and
found his son, but learned that the father had gone up the coast on
business, to be absent several days. The son took the letter, broke it
open, and read it. He told me to say to the colonel that his father was
absent and had written to him that he intended starting home in a few
days, probably by the next boat. I went back and bore the message. The
lawyer who had given me the letter cursed me for permitting the son to
open it. The colonel turning over on his bed, and fastening his eyes
upon the enraged attorney, with a mingled expression of anger and
despair, said,

"I am gone, there is no hope for me. I see, I see, they have robbed me
of my property, my papers, poisoned, and then forsaken me. I have not
much more confidence in you than in the rest."

"My dear colonel," said the implicated sycophant, "do you think I would
ever treat so basely a client s