pearance was cleared up, he finally per suaded William to return with him to Springfield. But the next morning both William and Henry insisted on starting for home in spite of every effort on the part of Archibald to detain them.
Up to this time Fisher's disappearance had attracted no special attention outside the few immediately concerned. Three of four days later Henry came back to Springfield to resume with his brother Archibald, but nothing came of it. On Friday, June 12, however, James W. Keyes, the postmasterat Springfield, received a letter from the postmaster at Greenbush, stating that William Trayler had returned home and was circulating a report that Fisher was dead and had willed him his money, and that the amount was about $1,500 — a much larger sum than Fisher was supposed to have had, and Mr. Keyes was asked to give him all the information he could touching the matter.
The contents of this letter was soon made public and created intense excitement. Springfield had at this time a population of two thousand people, and in the year previous, adopted a city charter. The mayor was one William L. May, and he, in company with Josiah Lamborn, Attorney-General of the state, headed a movement to ferret out the mystery. A large company was raised and formed into squads, each squad following a different direction, in order that no spot might be left unsearched. Every well, and every place where a body might be concealed, for miles around, was carefully examined. The search was continued for several days, and then it was determined to arrest William and Henry Trayler, and officers were sent for them at once. Henry was brought in the next day, Monday, June 15. He was closely questioned by the Mayor and the Attorney-General, but he steadily protested that he knew nothing more about the matter than was already known. It was pointed out to him that the circumstantial evidence in the case was so strong that he and his two brothers would certainly be hung, and that the sole chance he had of saving his own life was to be come a witness for the state and give the search the particulars of the murder — for that Fisher had been murdered there could no longer be any doubt.
He withstood all the pressure brought to bear upon him until Wednesday, the 17th, when, solemnly protesting his own innocence, he told how his two brothers, William and Archibald, without his knowledge at the time, had murdered Fisher by hanging him to a tree; how they had temporarily hid the body; how that just before the departure of William and himself from Springfield on the third of June, his brothers had told him of the murder, and had asked his assistance in making a final concealment of the body; how that at the time William and he had left ostensibly for home, they took another way and entered the woods northwest of town, where they were joined by Archibald.
Entering into a minute description of the crime, he related how his brothers had gone into a thicket where the body was concealed; how they had placed it in the buggy, driven off with it towards the Hickox mill-pond, on Spring Creek, and returning soon after, had told him they had put the body in a safe place. Following this Archibald had returned to town, and William and himself had set out for their homes.
Up to this time Archibald Trayler had been held in the highest esteem, and no faintest suspicion of serious wrongdoing had ever attached to him, but after this confession on the part
