Leeds.

Though I could have shot him, I preferred to be killed rather than to
kill. But before I could do anything, or even consider what to do,
another actor appeared on the stage. I saw Griffin Leeds look behind
him once, as though he feared an interruption, and doubtless he heard
the step of the third person. Until the stranger was close upon the
octoroon, I had not seen him. In the soft sand that formed the soil of
the forest, one could hardly hear the sounds of approaching footsteps.

The stranger stepped from behind a large pine-tree, and before I had
recovered from my surprise at his appearance, he fell upon Griffin
Leeds, handling him with an ease that astonished me. He flung him on
the ground like an unclean bird, and then pointed his own rifle at his
head.

It was entirely safe for me under these circumstances to leave my
hiding-place, and I walked towards the scene of the last encounter. I
kept my gun in position for use, though I was not at all inclined to
fire upon a human being. I wondered who had thus interfered to save me
from the bullet of Griffin Leeds. Then I wondered how Griffin Leeds
happened to be in the woods, miles above the head of ordinary
navigation. I thought of my wound, and placed my hand upon it. It was
beginning to feel very sore, and the blood was still flowing very
freely from it. I bound my handkerchief around my neck, but I found it
difficult to cover the place.

I had been shot at the day before. Was it not probable that the same
person had fired both shots? Then I thought of the noise I had heard
while I was measuring the depth of the river. There was some
hiding-place in the after part of the Wetumpka which we had not yet
discovered. In that place Griffin Leeds had been concealed, perhaps
from the time we left Welaka, on our trip up the Ocklawaha. This seemed
to me to be a satisfactory solution of this part of the mystery. I was
so well satisfied that I did not care to hear any evidence on the
subject. I could not have understood it any better if all the details
had been given to me under oath.

But it was plain enough to me that Griffin Leeds could not have existed
in his hiding-place for nearly two weeks, or even one, without the
connivance of some person on board. Of course that person was Cornwood.

Who was the stranger that interfered to save me? I concluded he was
some hunter, who had taken a hand in the affair simply from the love of
fair play. I walked towards him, a