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 gave her of the orders he had just received. The two then spoke of another matter.

"Far off as ever, mother, and without your help there's nothing to be done now. Last night I was in a fair way enough, but up comes that chap her brother—it could be nobody else—and I had to cut for it. I went over the fence then a thought quicker than I should be able to do it now."

"It was not Bill Humphries you saw, for he was at my cabin long time after hours last night; and then he'd not venture into this quarter now. No—no. 'Twas the old man, I reckon."

"Maybe, though he seemed to run too fast for the old fellow. But no matter who 'twas. The thing failed, and you must chalk out another track."

"I will: dont fear, for I've said it; and come fire, come storm, it must be done. Goggle—Goggle—Goggle! He must pay for that, and he shall; she shall—they shall all pay for that, and old scores besides. It's a long-standing account, sergeant, and you can help me to make it up and pay it off; and that's the reason I help you to this. I shall go about it now, and—" After a pause, in which she seemed to meditate a while—"Yes; meet me in the swamp thicket above the bridge, just after you pass the Oak Grove."

"When?"

"This morning—soon as the bells strike up for church, and before the people begin to come in freely. Don't be backward, now, but come certain, and don't wait for the last chimes."

The worthy pair separated, and the glimpses of a previous connexion, which their dialogue gives us, serve a little to explain some portions of our own narrative.

While this matter had been in progress, two sturdy troopers joined Humphries in the swamp. Their horses were carefully hidden, and they determined to await the time when the roads should be free from the crowd on their way to church, before they ventured abroad. They amused themselves as well as they might, keeping close in cover themselves, by watching the people as they crossed the bridge, hurried along the highway leading to the village, or lounged on the open ground in front of the church; for all of these points might easily be commanded from different places