One Sunday Morning on Barren River (Cont.)
Screen 3 of 3Without the drag of the feet, and with both of us paddling constantly, we began to move slowly upstream. Also, in order to avoid the force of the direct current, we tacked back and forth diagonally across the river, much as a sailing vessel tacks against the wind. This maneuver helped, and after about three hours of very exhaustive work, we finally reached our dock--almost a half day after we had left it. We tied up the boat, but were so tired we just remained in our seats for a while looking blankly at the dead body and saying nothing. Not only were we out of breath and sapped of most of our strength, but also in somewhat of a state of shock. Our adrenal glands had helped to bring us through the emergency, but now that it was over we seemed to be almost helpless.
The remainder of the story is anticlimactic. After pulling the dead body up onto the dock and covering it with the blanket, we climbed up to the house and called the county sheriff and the coroner, told them what had happened, and just waited.
Eventually they arrived with an ambulance and took over from there.
In the next day's local newspaper, we saw two articles, each about a different event, but for my mother and me they had a direct connection. One of the articles identified the dead man as a farmer from Butter County who had been paid a large sum of cash for the livestock he had brought to the Bowling Green market, not long before he was robbed, murdered, and thrown into the river.
The other article, one not receiving quite so much publicity, described a "joyous picnic held at beautiful Beech Bend Park" on that same Sunday afternoon we had found the body floating in the river. Listed prominently among the guests at the picnic were the names of the couple in the motor boat who had told us about sighting the body.
Chester C. Travelstead
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