am a man o' my word, specially when my word's
given to Susy. But I have got a pocket full of
dice, and they ain't loaded dice nuther. Ef
you want to play enough to bet something
handsome agin my terbacker box, I'll play with
you.'

"He drew out a very ancient silver box, of
about five dollars' weight, and laid it on the
table. Rodden sat down to business, with a
gleam in his dark eye that meant mischief. He
won it—then lost it. It was lost and won
several times, but rested at last in the pocket of
the countryman.

" 'Smart fellow, but you can't keep a hotel,
nor win my terbacker-box,' said he.

"The next day they played again, and he
lost his box, and watch, and thirty dollars; but
next time he won again, and so surprisingly,
that the gambler lost pretty nearly all he had to
lose, and then the countryman refused to play
any longer.

" 'Not to-night, anyhow,' said he. 'I might
be willing to play to-morrow, but I want to
sleep with my pockets full one night. I allus
put my own money in the cap'n's safe, but I'll
keep this ere that was yourn, in my berth
tonight to sleep on, just for luck.'

" 'That foolish fellow will be robbed to-night,'
I said to myself, 'and maybe murdered.' I had
such a presentiment of mischief, that I could
not go to sleep, and at midnight, when I heard
him go to bed, I knocked at his state-room
door, and said, 'Will you allow me to speak to
you?'

" 'I know what you're gonter say?' said he,
'but never you lay awake on my account. I
ain't a baby, and I know what that Rodden is
gonter do, as well as you do. But he's a barkin'
up the wrong tree. Look o' here, mister,' said
he, and he drew out a tremendous bowie-knife
from the back of his neck, and showed me under
his pillow a six-shooter. 'I reckon these ere
will do his business, if he comes arter me and
my winnins.'

"I left the man, reassured, and returned to my
berth, but not to sleep. The boat went snorting
and roaring on her way up the gloomy river.
It was a high flood, and if any accident
happened to the boat, there was a poor chance for
the passengers. More than once we had steamed
past the floating corpses from burnt or exploded
steamers. As I lay thinking of all this, I heard
a step. The countryman slept with his door
open. He would 'choke to death at onct,' he
said, if he didn't get the air. People brought
up in log-houses are apt to feel so. I
sprung to my feet, and crept towards his state-
room. The door was shut. There was the
sudden explosion of a pistol, followed by a
fierce cry. I opened the door. Rodden had
fallen on the floor, but he sprang to his feet, with
a cut across his hand, and one of his ears shot
off. He dashed out of the door as the countryman
exclaimed:

" 'That varmint!'

" 'Are you hurt?"

" 'Not a bit of it.' He had a slight cut on
his hand, however. Rodden had scarcely left
the state-room when he was grappled by the
porter, who, like myself, had been watching him.
The porter had seen the brief conflict, which he
had not time to prevent. The rascal struggled
hard, but he was soon disarmed, bound securely,
and locked up in a state-room. His loss of
blood helped, perhaps, to conquer him. I asked
a lady, who had come from her state-room in a
dressing-gown to indulge her natural curiosity,
to go to the poor wife and tell her the sad truth,
that her husband was wounded and a felon.

" 'Oh, what have I not suffered with him and
her!' said she, wringing her little hands. 'If I
could but return to my once happy home!'

" 'And why can you not?' asked the lady.
It was the old, old story. She had run away
from home and married a showy scamp without
the consent of her parents. The captain, the
countryman, and I, went aside to consult as to
what was to be done.

" 'Wait a minute,' said the countryman; and
he went into his state-room, and next instant
came out in a dressing-gown, another and a
natural head of hair, and without the
everlasting old gloves. It was my acquaintance Mr.
Browne, and a capital actor too.

" 'I determined to serve out that fellow if I
ever had a chance to do so,' said he, 'when he
robbed that poor carpenter, and drove him crazy.
He got cured of that by a small dose of water-
cure in the Mississippi, and the help of Muster.
I shall hunt him up, and give him back his
money.'

"Muster wagged his tail, as if he remembered
all about it, and approved of returning the cash.

"The poor little wife decided to return home.
The mother, deprived of her son, did not attempt
to keep her ill-used daughter-in-law.

"When Rodden found that he was to be
taken to the jail at Maysville, he sent for his
wife. 'It's all up with me for the present,'
said he. 'They have got me foul. You had
better go home, Lib, and stay with the old
folks, and behave yourself. Mother is no fit
company for you, unless I am about.'

"The little wife answered only with her sobs.
She held the baby for his father to kiss him,
but she did not offer him her own lips or cheek.
He was her tyrant no longer. She had found
friends. She would escape. We took her to
her paternal home on the Ohio, and saw her
kindly received by a worthy father and loving
mother. Mr. Browne went with me, and left a
thousand dollars of the sum he had won from
Rodden, in her father's hands.

"Rodden was tried for a murderous assault
with intent to rob, and sent to the penitentiary
for twenty-five years. He will be sixty when he
has served out his time. The mother tried hard
to save him, and may get him pardoned after a
while. The little wife became an exemplary and
happy mother.

"I don't keep up acquaintance with all the
world and his wife, because I can't; but I keep
track of Mr. Browne, and when he is acting in
England—with another name that I won't