Page:The Partisan (revised).djvu/257

Rh "What do you mean by strange—is he dangerous?"

"Sometimes, sir, he plays dangerously with you. But it's all in play, for he laughs, and doesn't look in earnest; but he is apt to hurt people then. He once threw me into the tree when he was so: but it wasn't in earnest, he didn't mean to do me hurt, I'm sure; but he didn't know; he can't tell what he does when the strange fit is on him."

"And where do you think he is now?—in the swamp?"

"Yes, sir; he loves to be in the swamp."

"And how long, boy, is it since he became strange?"

"Oh, a very long time, sir; ever since I was a little child. But he has been much stranger since my mother's death!"

"No wonder! no wonder! That was enough to make him so—that cruel murder; but we will avenge it, boy—we will avenge it."

"Yes, sir; that's what I want to do, as soon as you'll let me. I long to have a chance to cut a man over the head."

The boy stopped and blushed—half fearing that he had said too much; but the kindled fire of his eye was unshadowed, and there was a quiver of his lips, and an increasing heave of his breast, that did not escape the keen glance of Singleton. The latter was about to speak, when suddenly the boy stopped him, bent forward upon his horse, and pointing with his finger to an opening from the roadside, called the attention of his commander in that direction.

"I'm sure, sir, it's a man—a white man; his back was to us, sir; he's in there."

At the word, Singleton drove the spur into his steed, and the boy followed him. In a few moments, lie was at the designated spot, and there, sure enough, even as his companion had said, in the little break of the woods, on the hillock's side, a strange man stood before them.

The person, thus surprised, now evidently beheld them for the first time. He had been tightening the saddle-girth around his horse, that stood quietly cropping the grass at their approach; and his eves were turned over his shoulder, surveying the new-comers. He hesitated, and his manner had in it something of precipitation. This was the more evident to Singleton, as, on their appearance, he