purpar' yur speech, while I slide
roun' among the fellurs, an' do a leetle for ye in the line o'
canvassin'."

After a final bruin-like pressure of the hand the giant had commenced
striding away, when he came again to a halt, uttering a loud "Hiloo!"

"What is it?" inquired the young Irishman.

"It seems that Cris Rock air 'bout one o' the biggest nummorskulls in
all Noo-Orleans. Only to think! I was about startin' to take the stump
for a kandydate 'ithout knowin' the first letter o' his name. How wur
ye crissened, young fellur?"

"Kearney--Florence Kearney."

"Florence, ye say? Ain't that a woman's name?"

"True; but in Ireland many men bear it."

"Wal, it do seem a little kewrious; but it'll do right slick, and the
Kearney part soun's well. I've hern speak o' Kate Kearney; thar's a
song 'bout the gurl. Mout ye be any connexshun o' hern?"

"No, Mr Rock; not that I'm aware of. She was a Killarney woman. I was
born a little further north on the green island."

"Wal, no matter what part o' it, yur are welkim to Texas, I reck'n, or
the States eyther. Kearney--I like the name. It hev a good ring, an'
it'll soun' all the better wi' `Capting' for a handle to 't--the which
it shall hev afore ten o'clock this night, if Cris Rock ain't astray in
his reck'nin'. But see as ye kum early to the rendyvoo, so as to hev
time for a talk wi' the boys. Thar's a somethin' in that; an' if ye've
got a ten dollar bill to spare, spend it on drinks all round. Thar's a
good deal in that too."

So saying, the Texan strode off, leaving Florence Kearney to reflect
upon the counsel so opportunely extended.

CHAPTER TWO.

A LADY IN THE CASE.

Who Florence Kearney was, and what his motive for becoming a
"filibuster," the reader shall be told without much tediousness of
detail.

Some six months before the encounter described, he had landed from a
Liverpool cotton ship on the Levee of New Orleans. A gentleman by birth
and a soldier-scholar by education, he had gone to the New World with
the design to complete his boyhood's training by a course of travel, and
prepare himself for the enacting the _metier_ of a man. That this
travel should be westward, over fresh untrodden fields, instead of along
the hackneyed highways of the European tourist, was partly due to the
counsels of a tutor--who had himself visited the New World--and partly
to his own natural inclinations.

In the course of his college studies he had read