William Hepworth Dixon, White Conquest: Volume 1

[248] looked extremely strong. He had a deadly quarrel with the murdered man; he had been seen prying through the church window, as if to mark his victim; and his face had been recognised in the bush by his rival in love, his enemy in a family feud. Worse remained behind. An officer, kicking about the bush, picked up a piece of wadding, and on smoothing out the paper, found it had been torn from a copy of the Globe, a newspaper published at St. Louis. Hinchcliffe, the post-master of Carterville, testified that no one except Russell received that journal. The officers arrested Russell, found a shotted gun in his room, and, on drawing the charge, they pulled out a piece of wadding, which was found to join and fit th'paper picked up, in the shape of wadding, in the bush. Yet Tom escaped conviction. This escape was due to another cousin, a girl named Mattie, who swore-first, that she was paying a visit to her uncle Russell on the day when Dave Bulliner was shot; and second, that her cousin Tom was at home the whole day and night; and third, most positively, that about eight o'clock in the evening, he bade them all good-night and went to bed. Squire Strover, who heard the case, was of