It is very doubtful if he would have been able to do this, however, had it not been for the fact that one of the enemy's commands had lost its way and thereby left a passage open for him, which he was not slow to use. He therefore reached his friends, not indeed without fighting, but with the loss of only about one third of his command. How his affairs prospered with the widow after this interruption we know not ; but let us hope that if he again ventured in that quarter, he did not involve his entire command in this sort of a conquest.

When the Skinners and the Cowboys were struggling for the sovereignty of the " Neutral Ground, " and shortly after one of the scions of one of our old county families had been shot down while standing under a walnut tree* near the door of his mansion by one of these gentry'for refusing to blacken his boots, the people found it necessary to bury all valuables which they chanced to possess to escape these marauders from both sides.

One day it was whispered abroad that a

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rather stronger party of Skinners than usual was about to visit the district of lower Eastchester. Several of the people came together, unhung the bell of the "Old East Chester Church," filled it with money and other valuables and buried it. Among these individuals were two brothers named Wilson. One of these young men, Harry, was a drunken, worthless chap, who had caused the death of his beautiful and devoted wife by his brutality, while the other seems to have been a very respectable member of society. Some time after the visit of the before-mentioned party of Skinners, both brothers (who were not on good terms) by a strange coincidence resolved to dig up the bell and procure the treasure on the same night.