e? Do you speak seriously?"

"Quite true it is--but I have taken the antidote. I am cured."

"Antidote! Cured! And what cure? who gave you an antidote?"

"A friend whom I met in the swamp!"

"A friend in the swamp!" exclaimed Reigart, his astonishment increasing.

I had almost forgotten the necessity of keeping my secret. I saw that I
had spoken imprudently. Inquisitive eyes were peeping in at the door.
Ears were listening to catch every sound.

Although the inhabitant of the Mississippi is by no means of a curious
disposition--_malgre_ the statements of gossiping tourists--the
unexplained and forlorn appearance I presented on my return was enough
to excite a degree of interest even among the most apathetic people; and
a number of the guests of the hotel had gathered in the lobby around the
door of my chamber, and were eagerly asking each other what had happened
to me. I could overhear their conversation, though they did not know
it.

"He's been fightin' a painter?" said one, interrogatively.

"A painter or a bar," answered another.

"'Twur some desprit varmint anyhow--it hez left its mark on him,--that
it hez."

"It's the same fellow that laid out Bully Bill: ain't it?"

"The same," replied some one.

"English, ain't he?"

"Don't know. He's a Britisher, I believe. English, Irish, or Scotch,
he's a hull team an' a cross dog under the wagon. By God! he laid out
Bully Bill straight as a fence-rail, wi' nothin' but a bit o' a whup,
and then tuk Bill's pistols away from him! Ha! ha! ha!"

"Jehosophat!"

"He's jest a feller to whip his weight in wild-cats. He's killed the
catamount, I reckon."

"No doubt he's done that."

I had supposed that my encounter with Bully Bill had made me enemies
among his class. It was evident from the tone and tenor of their
conversation that such was not the case. Though, perhaps, a little
piqued that a stranger--a mere youth as I then was--should have
conquered one of their bullies, these backwoodsmen are not intensely
clannish, and Bully Bill was no favourite. Had I "whipped" him on any
other grounds, I should have gained a positive popularity by the act.
But in defence of a slave--and I a foreigner--a Britisher, too--that was
a presumption not to be pardoned. That was the drawback on my victory,
and henceforth I was likely to be a "marked man" in the neighbourhood.

These observations had served to amuse me while I was awaiting the
arrival of Reigart, th