Betweenthis hill and tbe cabin Is a deep^cave, forty feet down straight on all side*^where one of the moat extraordinary and^heinous crime* ever committed in the terr^tory took piece in April. Ivcj. while Bell
waa- fi a trip to Texaa. On this spot Mar^^tin Joseph, alias ^lluily .los*y.^ n Chicka^^saw Indian negro with a villainous repute-^Hon. abl) Hustatoed b^ every alignment of^hla hod), aeasulted and murdered a white^wom*n named Stephens. Some days oe-^tore the murder Joeev induced the wom^^an's husoand to go Into the brush with^him. Hardly had they plunged luto the^deuse thi^ ket when i^^^.^^^ murdered^s - pheim in cold blood, leaving^hla bod y uncared for on t he^ground. This ttend Incarnate then^returned to Stephens's house and^told Mrs. Stephens her husband was sick^tn the mountain and wanted her assist^ance. The good woman - ^ ;^^^^ t^ d no^WlwaW, put h* r bahy to sleep, took some^maple hounehold remedies in her hands^and arc ^inpanted the acoundrel to this se-^^. .d-d spot, where he murdered her and^^ hrew the poor woman's dead body into his^e
Thebahy starved to t -ath in its cradle^and waa found by some Texas travellers^nearly a month later. In a vear or so^Helle returned from Texas, and, learning^f the ghaatly murder, she organized a^earehlng party to look for the remains and^eaten the guilt where It belonged^Steven's body waa found first, and finally^the aearchlng party, headed by iielie her^self, came to the cave. A rough wludl^was constructed and a man lowered into a^pot where no human eye had ever pern*^trSJeeet xldenly those above him heard^him shout as if in great terror, beaeerh'iig^hem to haul him up ^|ulckly, and once up^on terra time the poor fellow was speech^leas with fright. He anally managed to^ell them that the cave was tilled, bottom^nd sides, with rattlesnakes; that he bad^(^eeij on the very edge of a nest of thou^sanda of them; that they had rattled and^hissed In Ins very ears, and that all the re^ards In Christendom would never Induce^hi in to enter the place again. Naturally^nough, his companions shuddered at this^leaeriptlon and not a man among them^would have gone Into the cave If bis life^epended on It^itelle was the first to act.^She fastened the rope around ber waist^and In reply to the astonished looka of the^party this intrep d woman announced her^letermlnatlon to enter the cave and find^he body If It waa there. 