villain; "kirn back, you down-east coward, you!
And you Dutch cur '(for the Massachusetts man
and the German were already in full retreat),
they air but two, and without weepons."

When they were certain of this last reassuring
fact, the more timorous of the robbers
became almost beyond restraint in their
bloodthirsty fury. Pistols and bowie-knives menaced
us on every side, and it was with some trouble
that the captain prevented our summary
extermination. Black Dave, however, was firm. By
his orders our wrists were tightly bound together
with handkerchiefs, and we were placed in
the centre of a circle of hostile faces and
threatening revolvers, and bidden to confess.

"Speak up, ye skunks, who air ye?"

In answer to tins query, the general gave a
succinct and graphic account of the steam-boat
accident, of our escape and immersion, of our
landing on the island, and of how we happened
to fall asleep in the log-house and become the
involuntary auditors of the robbers' council,
though this point was rather lightly touched
upon. A bellow of fierce incredulity answered
this statement.

"Cut out the lyin' snake's tongue!" bawled
one.

"Murder 'em both, the oily spoken slippy-
skinned Yankee eels," cried another, flourishing
his glittering knife within an inch of my nose,
while two pistol-barrels were pressed to the
forehead of the unflinching Jeremiah.

"Hold a bit, gentlemen," said Black Dave.
"Out with the truth, ye skulking crawlers!
Who sent you? Air ye State police, or mere
informers? You, specially, with the Connecticut
phiz and satin waistcoat. Hevn't I seen your
ugly features before? What's your name?"

"I dare say you have seen me before. I am
General Jeremiah Flint, of New England, and I
ain't ashamed of parentage nor raising," replied
the general.

There was a murmur. Three or four of those
present knew the general by repute or by sight.
The Massachusetts man observed that " Flint
was a hypocrite, that passed for doing things on
the square." The German abused him for a
"schelm," who had ill-treated an acquaintance
of his at Memphis: which accusation afterwards
resolved itself into the fact that Flint had
broken the arm of a bully who tried to gouge
him. Two other men had heard Flint was "a
cute chap," and had been soft-hearted enough
to help more than one person they had known,
and who had been ruined and half-starved in the
South.

All this time Black Dave, with an ominous
frown on his dark brows, had stood toying with
the lock of his revolver, making the hammer
play up and down between his strong fingers, and
tapping the bullets that lay in each charged
chamber. Presently he fixed his keen eyes on
the steady eyes of the principal captive. I say
principal, because I attracted little or no attention,
being quite unknown.

"Last time we met," said Dave, deliberately,
"you and me, Jeremiah Flint, you sat on the
bench along with the sheriff and the squires, and
I stood in the dock. Now times air altered. I
am judge, now, and by all that's airthly, I'll hev
justice. You say you're no spy. That mebbe
true; but how if we let you go to the next
town——-  "

"You'll never be such a 'tarnal fool,
captain," said a bystander.

I took the opportunity of eagerly and solemnly
assuring the outlaw that he had nothing to fear
from our indiscretion. We would be silent, until
silence could no longer be necessary.

"Shut your mouth, Britisher," said Dave,
roughly, and instantly resumed. " Gineral, you
must die. It goes agin me to kill in cold blood,
but it's our law, and unless we'd all be strung up
to trees by the Reg'lators of Tennessee, we
must silence you for sartin." Dave lifted his
pistol, and pointed it at the forehead of poor
Flint, who gave a slight shudder, and then stood
firm.

"I'll settle the other sneak," said a brawny
boatman, cocking his revolver, and grasping my
collar. .

"I'll count twenty, slow," said Dave. " If
you've got religion, you can mumble a prayer;
and you, too, Britisher, for, when I get to twenty,
I crook my claw."

The boatman's pistol was pressed to my ear.
The muzzle felt icy cold, like the touch of
Death's hand. My arms were bound, and all
resistance impossible.

" One," began Dave.

The face of old Stone was contorted for a
moment, as by a twinge of pain, and he let his
pipe go out, unheeded, but said nothing. The
girls were sobbing in a corner, and Mrs. Stone
was apparently urging them, in a whisper, to
withdraw.

The robber captain continued to count. " Two,
three, four, five."

Such a scream! Mary Stone broke from her
mother who sought to detain her, threw herself
on her knees at Black Dave's feet, and began to
beg our lives with an incoherent energy and a
passionate sobbing and outpouring of words
that it was painful to hear. This girl, usually
so quiet and depressed, was now fully roused
by the horror of the cruel deed about to be done.
She wept and clung to Dave's brawny arm, and
supplicated for mercy: mixing her entreaties
with broken Scriptural phrases and incautious
censures on the lawless life and pursuits of the
band. But the chief, though startled, was not
softened. He shook off the weak hands that
grasped his.

"Marm Stone, take off your darter, and
leave me to settle accounts with the spy. Men
ain't to be twisted round, like milksops, by a
useless screechin gal. You've made me lose
my count, young one, but I'll pick it up by
guess. Twelve!"

But scarcely had he levelled the weapon when
Mrs. Stone advanced, and boldly beat it down.

"I've been a puzzlin' my brains," said the
virago, "to recklect the man, and if he's him I
think, he shan't die. None of your ugly frowns