Disgusted with the odious
spectacle, the youth was turning from the sight, after ordering the
corpse to be removed, when the position of one of the dead man's hands
struck him. On examination, he found the fore-finger extended, as if
in the act of writing in the sand, with the following incomplete
sentence, nearly illegible, but yet in a state to be deciphered:
"Captain, it is true, as I am a gentle--" He had either died, or
fallen into a sleep, the forerunner of his death, before the latter
word was finished.
Concealing this fact from the others, Middleton repeated his orders
and departed. The pertinacity of the deceased, and all the
circumstances united, induced him to set on foot some secret
enquiries. He found that a family answering the description which had
been given him, had in fact passed the place the day of his nuptials.
They were traced along the margin of the Mississippi, for some
distance, until they took boat and ascended the river to its
confluence with the Missouri. Here they had disappeared like hundreds
of others, in pursuit of the hidden wealth of the interior.
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