Finally he stopped at a place
in the garments of the principal of the twain. "Here is a hole," he
exclaimed, "with burned woollen fibre about it, as if a pistol had been
fired at close quarters. Draw back this woollen under-jacket! There--as
I expected, gentlemen, is a pistol shot in the breast! What is the name
of the person? Ah! thank you! Well, William Zane, gentlemen, was shot
before he was drowned?"
The great crowd swayed and rushed forward again, and again the ice
cracked like artillery. Before the multitude could swarm to the honey of
a crime a second time, the news was dispersed that both of the drowned
men had bullet wounds in their bodies, and both had been undoubtedly
murdered. Some supposed it was the work of river pirates; others a
private revenge, perpetrated by some following boat's party in the
darkness of night. But more than one person piped shrilly ere the people
wearily scattered in the dusk for their homes on the two shores of the
river: "How did it happen that young Zane, the old un's son, said
yisterday that his daddy was about, when he's been frozen in at least
three days?"
CHAPTER II.
THE FLIGHT.
A handsome residence on the south side of Queen Street had been the home
of the prosperous ship-carpenter, William Zane.
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