A QUESTION OF JURISDICTION. By Henry Burns Geer. THAT bad blood existed between Sim Skipwith and Lawson Dykes of the sixth judicial district, was well known to the men of the community. That it would some day result in serious trouble, was anticipated. It was not the outgrowth of a love affair. On the contrary, it was a matter of business, in which an old worn-out rail fence figured. The dividing line between their respective homesteads was the basis of the trouble, and the old fence covered, or was supposed to cover, the limit of the two properties. But the fence had been blown down in sections, and reset so many times, that the true line had in a manner been lost, and both parties claimed a spring that gushed from a hillside right by the side of the fence. The spring, in fact, was the vital point. There, too, — very unfortunately, — the fence had blown down once, and Skipwith, in resetting it, had taken in the spring on his land, al though, previously, it had been on Dykes' side of the fence. The latter promptly reset the fence, re-enclosing the water source on his side. When the men met at the usual Saturday gathering on the public square in town, a few days later, they had a violent quarrel about the matter; but friends interfered, and no blood was spilled, as was at one time ex pected. Two days later, however, Dykes' lifeless body, with a charge of buckshot in the breast, was found on the highway that di vided the fifth from the sixth judicial district. Knowledge of the bad blood between the two men, and the quarrel, together with other damaging circumstantial evidence, led to the arrest of Skipwith, charged with the assassi nation of Dykes.
Then the question of jurisdiction arose, and for several months it threatened to defeat the ends of justice. It was the old question of division, even after death of one of the origi nal contestants. For, while the dead body had been found in the road that divided the two civil districts, yet the general belief was that the murder had been committed in the woods, either on one side or the other; but, a heavy shower having fallen before the re mains were discovered, it seemed impossible to determine with any degree of accuracy on which side of the highway, and, therefore, in which district, the deed had been committed. The officers of the sixth district had ar rested Skipwith, and were holding him for trial; but his friends had made such a strong point against their right of jurisdiction, that the trial had been postponed from term to term, until several months had elapsed, and there was much apprehension among the friends of Dykes, that Skipwith might escape punishment entirely, notwithstanding the fact that it was pretty generally conceded that he was guilty of the awful crime. Finally, however, an unexpected witness — a dumb creature — gave evidence to the authorities that settled the question of juris diction and resulted in the trial and convic tion of Sim Skipwith. Perry Nelson, a neighbor of the murdered man's family, had occasion to borrow a horse of his widow to ride to town; and it so hap pened that she loaned him " Selim," the favorite saddle-horse and pet animal of her deceased husband. It was the first time that " Selim " had been off of the premises since the tragedy, on which occasion he had borne his beloved master to his death. Nelson, en route to town, passed along the
