Page:The Millbank Case - 1905 - Eldridge.djvu/214

 murder the man at whom he struck, but to seize him and take from his person certain papers. He struck in the dark in the direction of a noise made, as he supposed, by the man. He may have struck harder than he intended. At the least, he struck his companion and not the man, and with force sufficient to break the collar-bone. What they had been set to do, they were to do and then return to the woods without being seen. He had now the fear earned by failure, and the certainty that the man, having escaped, would call on the authorities, and he and his companion would be betrayed by the latter's wound. He, therefore, persuaded him to bear his pain until they could get to a place of safety, and not daring to travel the roads, where they could be tracked, they struck to the river banks above the Falls, and followed these until they found a boat into which they got, turning its head upstream.

"He had only an old and broken oar with which to paddle, but a driver can paddle with a single pole, and they easily reached the middle of the river. Here he turned at a groan from his com