!" said the black, pausing, "is he within, do you think?"

One of the crowd immediately inquired, and replied to him in
affirmative.

"Will any of you," continued the boxer, "bring me over a half-hundred
weight from the market crane? I will show this fellow what a poor chance
he has. If he is so strong in the arm and active as is reported, I
desire he will imitate me. Let the music stop a moment."

The crowd was now on tiptoe, and all necks were stretched over the
shoulders of those who stood before them, in order to see, if possible,
what the feat could be which he intended to perform. Having received
the half-hundred weight from the hands of the man who brought it, he
approached the widow's cottage, and sent in a person to apprize _Lamh
Laudher_ of his intention to throw it over the house, and to request
that he would witness this proof of his strength. Lamh Laudher delayed a
few minutes, and the Dead Boxer stood in the now silent crowd, awaiting
his appearance, when accidentally glancing into the door, he started as
if stung by a serpent. A flash and a glare of his fierce blazing eyes
followed.

"Ha! damnation! true as hell!" he exclaimed, "she's with him! Ha!--the
Obeah woman was right--the Obeuh woman was right. Guilt, guilt, guilt!
Ha!"

With terror and fury upon his huge dark features, he advanced a step or
two into the cottage, and in a voice that resembled the under-growl
of an enraged bull, said to his wife, for it was she--"You will never
repeat this--I am aware of you; I know you now! Fury! prepare yourself;
I say so to both. Ha!" Neither she nor Lamh Laudher had an opportunity
of replying to him, for he ran in a mood perfectly savage to the
half-hundred weight, which he caught by the ring, whirled it round him
two or three times, and, to the amazement of the mob who were crowded
about him, flung it over the roof of the cottage.

Lamh Laudher had just left the cabin in time to witness the feat, as
well as to observe more closely the terrific being in his full strength
and fury, with whom he was to wage battle on the following day. Those
who watched his countenance, observed that it blanched for a moment, and
that the color came and went upon his cheek.

"Now, young fellow," said the Boxer, "get behind the cabin and throw
back the weight."

Lamh Landher hesitated, but was ultimately proceeding to make the
attempt, when a voice from the crowd, in tones that were evidently
disguised, shouted--

"Don