After an early breakfast at Morristown the tobacco-pedler -- whose name was Dominicus Pike -- had travelled seven miles through a solitary piece of woods without speaking a word to anybody but himself and his little gray mare . It being nearly seven o'clock , he was as eager to hold a morning gossip as a city shopkeeper to read the morning paper . An opportunity seemed at hand when , after lighting a cigar with a sun-glass , he looked up and perceived a man coming over the brow of the hill at the foot of which the pedler had stopped his green cart . Dominicus watched him as he descended , and noticed that he carried a bundle over his shoulder on the end of a stick and travelled with a weary yet determined pace . He did not look as if he had started in the freshness of the morning , but had footed it all night , and meant to do the same all day . `` Good-morning , mister , '' said Dominicus , when within speaking-distance . `` You go a pretty good jog . What 's the latest news at Parker 's Falls ? '' The man pulled the broad brim of a gray hat over his eyes , and answered , rather sullenly , that he did not come from Parker 's Falls , which , as being the limit of his own day 's journey , the pedler had naturally mentioned in his inquiry . `` Well , then , '' rejoined Dominicus Pike , `` let 's have the latest news where you did come from . I 'm not particular about Parker 's Falls . Any place will answer . '' Being thus importuned , the traveller -- who was as ill-looking a fellow as one would desire to meet in a solitary piece of woods -- appeared to hesitate a little , as if he was either searching his memory for news or weighing the expediency of telling it . At last , mounting on the step of the cart , he whispered in the ear of Dominicus , though he might have shouted aloud and no other mortal would have heard him . `` I do remember one little trifle of news , '' said he . `` Old Mr. Higginbotham of Kimballton was murdered in his orchard at eight o'clock last night by an Irishman and a nigger . They strung him up to the branch of a St. Michael 's pear tree where nobody would find him till the morning . '' As soon as this horrible intelligence was communicated the stranger betook himself to his journey again with more speed than ever , not even turning his head when Dominicus invited him to smoke a Spanish cigar and relate all the particulars . The pedler whistled to his mare and went up the hill , pondering on the doleful fate of Mr. Higginbotham , whom he had known in the way of trade , having sold him many a bunch of long nines and a great deal of pig-tail , lady 's twist and fig tobacco . He was rather astonished at the rapidity with which the news had spread .
Kimballton was nearly sixty miles distant in a straight line ; the murder had been perpetrated only at eight o'clock the preceding night , yet Dominicus had heard XXXXX it at seven in the morning , when , in all probability , poor Mr. Higginbotham 's own family had but just discovered his corpse hanging on the St. Michael 's pear tree .
At about from in of than that till to within