he Gaudylocks and the Rands, and I knew Gideon better
than most men. As for Lewis, I reckon there was a time when I was almost
his only friend. I've stood between him and many a beating, and 'twas I
that taught him to shoot. A fine place he's making out of Roselands!"

"Yes," agreed Cary, with a quick sigh; "a beautiful place. The West is
in a ferment just now, is it not? One hears much talk of
dissatisfaction."

"Why, all that sort of thing is told me when I come home," said Adam.
"The Indians call such idle speech talk of singing birds. My faith, I
think all the singing birds in the Mississippi Territory have flown
East! In the West we don't listen to them. That's a fine mare you're
riding, sir! You should see the wild horses start up from the prairie
grass."

"That would be worth seeing. Have you ever, in your wanderings, come
across Aaron Burr?"

Adam regarded the other side of the acorn. "Aaron Burr! Why, I wouldn't
say that I mayn't have seen him somewhere. A man who traps and trades,
and hunts and fishes, up and down a thousand miles of the Mississippi
River is bound to come across a mort of men. But 'twould be by accident.
He's a gentleman and a talker, and he was the Vice-President. I reckon
he runs with the Governor and the General and the gentleman-planter and
the New Orleans ladies." Adam laughed genially. "I know a red lip or two
in New Orleans myself, but they're not ladies! and I drink with the
soldiers, but not with the General. What's your interest, sir, in Aaron
Burr?"

"The common interest," said Cary, rising. "When you quit Albemarle this
time, you quit it alone?"

Gaudylock tossed aside the acorn. "That is my fortune," he answered
coolly.

Cary swung himself into his saddle. "The woods, I see, teach but half
the Spartan learning. We'll part here, I think, unless you'll come by
Greenwood?"

"Thank you kindly, sir, but I've a bit of a woodsman's job to look after
at Roselands. What was the Spartan learning?"

"You are going," replied the other, "to the house of a gentleman who
knows the classics. Ask him. Good-day!"

"Good-day," said Adam somewhat abruptly, and with a thoughtful face
watched the other ride away. "He has been listening," thought the
hunter, "to singing birds. Now when, and where, and to how loud a
singing? The nineteenth of February--and the snowstorm--and the stars
shining as I walked home from Shockoe Hill. He didn't know that I was in
Richmond! Then, was he on Burr's t