The Story of a Dark Plot | Page 5

they have been
related by the victim himself.
[Illustration: Station at Sutton Junction, Place of the midnight assault.]
It was between one and two o'clock on Sunday morning, July 8th, when
Mr. Smith was attacked by the cowardly miscreant who has thus made
himself notorious. We say "cowardly," because when a large, strong
man who carries arms and is a professional fighter, as he appears to
have been, attacks a man who is weaponless and not more than
two-thirds his size by giving him a stunning blow upon the head while
he is asleep, there is clearly no evidence of heroism on the part of the
man who makes the assault. Yet this was what Mr. Smith's brave
assailant did!
After receiving the first blow, Mr. Smith felt a strange sensation as
though he were taking a long, happy journey, and he thinks he was
aroused by his assailant attempting to drag him from the settee. As a
train was going by before daylight, it is the opinion of many that his
intention may have been to leave his victim stunned upon the railway
track, that the locomotive might complete the frightful work which he
had begun. At least, he doubtless intended by some means to guard
himself from suspicion and leave Mr. Smith entirely unable ever to
identify him. When he saw that the object of his brutal attack was
arousing he struck him a second time, but this blow not having the
effect of the former one, Mr. Smith, who was now fully conscious,
although he could not see clearly, grappled desperately with his foe. He
saw a long weapon of some sort waving fiercely above his head, and

now and then received a blow from it, while his assailant was
constantly dragging him nearer the door, and he struggling to remain in
the room fearing the villain might have associates outside. Mr. Smith
was all the time shouting "murder," as loudly as possible, but, his
mouth being filled with blood, he was unable to make himself clearly
heard, and his calls brought no assistance. At length, being somewhat
weakened by the blows he had received, he was dragged outside in
spite of his efforts to remain within, but still no one came to the help of
either himself or his antagonist. The two men, still struggling
desperately, passed on from the upper to the lower platform without the
station, and thence to the railway track below, and finally back to the
lower platform. Then Mr. Smith got possession of the weapon which
his assailant had been wielding, and the last hope of his enemy seemed
to vanish with the loss of that, for, freeing himself from the grasp of the
man whom he had thought a few minutes before was entirely in his
power, he disappeared in the darkness, and fled up the track in such
haste that he did not even stop for his hat, which was found by some
one upon the platform next morning. The weapon which he left in Mr.
Smith's possession proved to be a large piece of lead pipe well battered
and bruised, near one end of which was attached a short piece of rope,
apparently intended to be slipped around the wrist of the user so that
the weapon might be concealed up his sleeve.
Mr. Smith, having seen his enemy retreat, hastened to the part of the
house where his brother's family were sleeping, and thence to the other
part where a Mr. Ames and family lived, and aroused the inmates of
both apartments, who were very much surprised and alarmed at thought
of the frightful scene which had been enacted so close to the apartments
where they were calmly sleeping. However, there was one brave man, a
train hand, who was sleeping above the scene of the assault, who
declared that he had heard the blows when given, but did not go down
to learn the cause as he "did not want to mix up in it," and was afraid he
might get hurt. There are far too many people who display the same
disposition when others within their reach are in danger or in need of
assistance. When the people of the house were awakened it seemed
already too late to capture the retreating criminal, but Mr. Smith's
injuries were attended to, and a message sent at once by telephone to

Sutton for a physician. The bruises proved to be very severe, and it
seems to be a modern miracle that life itself was spared.
The article from the Witness, part of which we quoted above, after
describing the assault, says:
"A good deal of indignation is felt by the law-abiding people not only
of Sutton Flats, but of the county, and it is hoped that every effort will