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The thing at Nolan by Ambrose beers
to the south of where the road between

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Leesville and Hardy and the state of
Missouri crossed. The east fork of May

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Creek stands an abandoned house. Nobody
has lived in it since the summer of

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eighteen seventy nine, and it is
fast going to pieces. For some three

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years before the date mentioned above,
it was occupied by the family of Charles

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May, from one of whose ancestors
the creek near which it stands took its

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name. Mister May's family consisted of
a wife, an adult son, and

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two young girls. The son's name
was John. The names of the daughters

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are unknown to the writer of this
sketch. John May was of a morose

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and surly disposition, not easily moved
to anger, but having an uncommon gift

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of sullen, implacable hate. His
father was quite otherwise, of a sunny,

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jovial disposition, but with a quick
temper, like a sudden flame kindled

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in a wisp of straw, which
consumes it in a flash and is no

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more. He cherished no resentments,
and his anger gone, was quick to

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make overtures for reconciliation. He had
a brother living near by who was unlike

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him in respect of all this,
and it was a current witticism in the

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neighborhood that John had inherited his disposition
from his uncle. One day, a

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misunderstanding arose between father and son.
Harsh words ensued, and the father struck

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the son full in the face with
his fist. John quietly wiped away the

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blood that followed the blow, fixed
his eyes upon the already penitent offender,

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and said, with cold composure,
you will die for that. The words

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were overheard by two brothers named Jackson, who were approaching the men at the

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moment, but seeing them engaged in
a quarrel, they retired apparently unobserved.

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Charles May afterward related the unfortunate occurrence
to his wife and explained that he had

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apologized to the Sun for the hasty
blow, but without avail. The young

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man not only rejected his overtures,
but refused to withdraw his terrible threat.

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Nevertheless, there was no open rupture
of relations. John continued living with the

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family, and things went on very
much as before. One Sunday morning in

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June eighteen seventy nine, about two
weeks after what has been related, May

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Senior left the house immediately after breakfast. Taking a spade, he said he

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was going to make an excavation at
a certain spring in a wood about a

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mile away, so that the cattle
could obtain water. John remained in the

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house for some hours, variously occupied
in shaving himself, writing letters, and

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reading a newspaper. His manner was
very nearly what it usually was, perhaps

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he was a trifle more sullen and
surly. At two o'clock he left the

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house. At five he returned for
some reason not connected with any interest in

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his movements, and which is not
now recalled. The time of his departure

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and that of his return were noted
by his mother and sisters. As was

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attested at his trial for murder,
it was observed that his clothing was wet

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in spots. As if so,
the prosecution afterward pointed out he had been

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removing blood stains from it. His
manner was strange, his look wild.

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He complained of illness, and going
to his room, took to his bed.

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May Senior did not return. Later
that evening, the nearest neighbors were

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aroused, and during that night and
the following day a search was prosecuted through

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the wood where the spring was It
resulted in little but the discovery of both

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men's footprints in the clay about the
spring. John May, in the meantime,

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had grown rapidly worse with what the
local physician called brain fever, and

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in his delirium, raved of murder, but did not say whom he conceived

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to have been murdered, nor whom
he imagined to have done the deed.

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But his threat was recalled by the
brothers Jackson, and he was arrested on

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suspicion, and a deputy sheriff put
in charge of him at his home.

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Public opinion ran strongly against him,
and but for his illness, he would

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probably have been hanged by a mob. As it was. A meeting of

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the neighbors was held on Tuesday,
and a committee appointed to watch the case

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and take such action at any time
as circumstances might seem to warrant. On

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Wednesday, all was changed. From
the town of Nolan, eight miles away

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came a story which put a quite
different light on the matter. Nolan consisted

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of a schoolhouse, a blacksmith's shop, a store, and a half dozen

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dwellings. The store was kept by
one Henry O'Dell, a cousin of the

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elder May. On the afternoon of
the Sunday of May's disappearance, mister Odell

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and four of his neighbors, men
of credibility, were sitting in the store,

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smoking and talking. It was a
warm day, and both the front

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and the back door were open.
At about three o'clock, Charles May,

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who was well known to three of
them, entered at the front door and

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passed out at the rear. He
was without hat or coat. He did

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not look at them nor return their
greeting, a circumstance which did not surprise,

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for he was evidently seriously hurt.
Above the left eyebrow was a wound,

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a deep gash from which the blood
flowed, covering the whole left side

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of the face and neck, and
saturating his light gray shirt. Oddly enough,

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the thought uppermost in the mines of
all was that he had been fighting

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and was going to the brook directly
at the back of the store to wash

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himself. Perhaps there was a feeling
of delicacy, a backwoods etiquette, which

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restrained them from following him to offer
assistance. The court records from which mainly

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this narrative is drawn are silent as
to anything but the fact. They waited

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for him to return, but he
did not return, bordering the brook behind

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the store as a forest, extending
for six miles back to the Medicine Lodge

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Hills. As soon as it became
known in the neighborhood of the missing man's

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dwelling that he had been seen in
Nolan, there was a marked alteration in

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public sentiment and feeling. The Vigilance
Committee went out of existence without the formality

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of a resolution. Search along the
wooded bottom lands of May Creek was stopped,

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and nearly the entire male population of
the region took to beating the bush

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about Nolan and in the Medicine Lodge
Hills, but of the missing man no

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trace was found. One of the
strangest circumstances of this strange case is the

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formal indictment and trial of a man
for murder of one whose body no human

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being professed to have seen, one
not known to be dead. We are

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all more or less familiar with the
vagaries and eccentricities of frontier law, but

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this instance, it is thought,
is unique. However that may be,

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It is of record that, on
recovering from his illness, John May was

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indicted for the murder of his missing
father. Counsel for the defense appears not

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to have demurred, and the case
was tried on its merits. The prosecution

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was spiritless and perfunctory, the defense
easily established with regard to the deceased an

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alibi. If during the time in
which John May must have killed Charles May,

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if he killed him at all,
Charles May was miles away from where

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John May must have been, it
is plain that the deceased must have come

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to his death at the hands of
someone else. John May was acquitted,

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immediately left the country and has never
been heard of from that day. Shortly

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afterward, his mother and sisters removed
to Saint Louis, the farm having passed

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into the possession of a man who
owns the land adjoining and has a dwelling

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of his own. The May house
has ever since been vacant and has the

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somber reputation of being haunted. One
day after the May family had left the

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country, some boys playing in the
woods along May Creek found concealed under a

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mass of dead leaves, but partly
exposed by the rooting of hogs, a

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spade nearly new and bright, except
for a spot on one edge, which

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was rusted and stained with blood.
The implement had the initials C M cut

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into the handle. This discovery renewed
in some degree the public excitement of a

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few months before. The earth near
the spot where the spade was found was

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carefully examined, and the result was
the finding of a dead body of a

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man. It had been buried under
two or three feet of soil, and

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the spot covered with a layer of
dead leaves and twigs. There was but

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little decomposition, a fact attributed to
some preservative property in the mineral bearing soil.

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Above the left eyebrow was a wound, a deep gash from which blood

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had flowed, covering the whole left
side of the face and neck, and

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saturating the light gray shirt. The
skull had been cut through by the blow.

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The body was that of Charles May. But what was it that passed

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through mister Odell store at Nolan End? The thing at Nolan by Ambrose Beers