h.
Monday while they were together "snaking" logs down the mountain side,
he suddenly saw Rich standing beside him headless,--a second glance
showed him Rich fastening a log-chain thirty feet distant. Tuesday
morning he beheld the headless shade at his elbow, while Rich was on the
far side of a fodder-stack from him; and about noon, the same dreadful
apparition started up beside him as he lifted a skillet of meat from the
fire, Rich being at the time on his way to catch a brief glimpse of his
people at home. Blant was in an agony until Rich returned safely about
four o'clock; then he told him of the warnings he had had, and implored
him to be exceedingly wary and careful, Rich being quite amused at his
earnestness.

After supper they were all gathered as usual about the fire, Blant
holding the babe, when there was a halloo from the road. "Don't pay no
attention to it," said Rich, "it's likely Todd, trying to tole you out."
But the call sounded again, in an unmistakably strange voice, and,
handing the babe to his father, Blant started for the door. Rich sprang
ahead of him. "If anybody goes, it'll be me," he said. Blant forcibly
put him back. "You don't set foot outside this house to-night," he
declared, "not after the visions I have seed." Then, taking his
forty-five from his pocket, he passed out of the door and into the open
passageway.

"I want to inquire how much further on it is to Billy Marrs's," called
the strange voice from the road.

"Something over a mile," replied Blant.

At the same instant, as Blant had probably anticipated, a man dashed
into the passage from the rear, firing, closely followed by a second,
also firing. Conjecturing at once that Todd had hired some stranger to
call him out, in order that he and a confederate might attack him, Blant
took instant deadly aim at both the men. The first--Todd--fell face
forward into the light from the doorway; the second, with the cry, "It's
me, Blant," also staggered forward a few steps, and Blant caught the
dying Rich in his arms. Guessing Todd's whereabouts, Rich, disobeying
commands, had jumped from the window to attack him from the rear, and
had thoughtlessly exposed himself to Blant's deadly aim.

[Illustration: "Blant caught the dying Rich in his arms."]

Saxby said that Blant, in an agony, had lifted his friend, dashed water
over him, worked for hours to restore him, refused to admit that he
could be dead; and finally, when compelled to abandon hop