e
drug-store in the village, with the view of having the wounds upon
his face dressed. They were found to be of a very slight character,
and a few pieces of court-plaster dexterously applied were all that
seemed to be required.

By this time the coroner had succeeded in impanneling a jury to
accompany him to the scene of the murder, and they proceeded in a
body toward the place. The lights from the lanterns, held by those
who watched beside the body, directed them to the spot, and they soon
arrived at the scene of the tragedy.

The coroner immediately took charge of the body, and the physician
who accompanied him made an examination into the cause of his death.

Upon turning the body over, two ugly gashes were found in the back of
his head, one of them cutting completely through the hat which
covered it and cutting off a piece of the skull, and the other
penetrating several inches into the brain, forcing the fractured
bones of the skull inward.

It seemed evident that the first blow had been struck some distance
from the place where the body had fallen, and that the stunned man
had staggered nearly thirty feet before he fell. The second blow,
which was immediately behind the left ear, had been dealt with the
blunt end of an axe, and while he was prostrate upon the ground.

Death must have instantly followed this second crushing blow, and he
had died without a struggle. Silently and stealthily the assassins
must have come upon him, and perhaps in the midst of some pleasant
dream of a boyhood home; some sweet whisper of a love of the long
ago, his life had been beaten out by the murderous hand of one who
had been lying in wait for his unsuspecting victim.

From the nature of the wounds the physician at once declared that
they were produced by an axe. The cut in the back of the head, and
from which the blood had profusely flowed, was of the exact shape of
the blade of an instrument of that nature--and the other must have
been produced by the back of the same weapon. The last blow must have
been a crushing one, for the wound produced was several inches deep.

An examination of the body revealed the fact that the clothing had
been forcibly torn open, as several buttons had been pulled from the
vest which he wore, in the frantic effort to secure the wealth which
he was supposed to have carried upon his person.

In the inner pocket of his coat, which had evidently been overlooked
by the murderers, was discovered a wo