That would mean, that a lost horse
had been killed or an estray steer. He called down and we went
in to see what thing this scavenger had got hold of."
He paused.
"In the cut of an abandoned road we found the body of Ordez
riddled with buckshot, and his pockets rifled. But sewed up in
his coat was the silk envelope with these papers. I took
possession of them as a Justice of the Peace, ordered the body
sent on here, and the people to assemble."
He extended his arm toward the faint, quivering, distant sound.
"Listen, Zindorf," he cried; "the bell began to toll for Duncan,
but it tolls now for the murderer of Ordez. It tolls to raise
the country against the assassin!"
The false monk had the courage of his master. He stood out and
faced my father.
"But can you find him, Pendleton," he said. And his harsh voice
was firm. "You find Ordez dead; well, some assassin shot him and
carried his body into the cut of the abandoned road. But who was
that assassin? Is Virginia scant of murderers? Do you know the
right one?"
My father answered in his great dominating voice
"God knows him, Zindorf, and I know him! .
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