"Butcher gave a mustang and two hundred and seventy for her," cried
another.

"Well, she broke his neck, for all that," growled out he of the red
neckcloth; "you'll see that some chap will win her that don't want a
beast, and she 'll be sold for a trifle."

"And there's a free passage to Galveston, grub and liquor, in the same
ticket," said another,--"an almighty sight of luck for one man!"

"It ain't me, anyhow," said red cravat; and then, with a tremendous
oath, added: "I've been a putter in at these Texas lotteries for four
years, and never won anything but a blessed rosary."

"What became of it, Dick?" said another, laughing.

"The beads fitted my rifle-bore, and I fired 'em away when lead was
scarce."

Various discussions followed about luck and lotteries, with anecdotes
of all kinds respecting fortunate winners; then came stories of Texan
expeditions in former times, which I began to perceive were little else
than speculations of a gambling kind, rarely intended to go farther than
the quay of New Orleans.

On the present occasion, however, it would seem a real expedition had
been planned. Some had already sailed, others were to follow the very
day after the lottery, and only waited to learn who was the fortunate
winner of Butcher's mare, at that time waiting at Galveston for an
owner.

I waited a long time, in hope of acquiring something like an insight
into the scope of the enterprise, but in vain; indeed, it was easy to
see that, of the company, not a single one, in all likelihood, intended
to join the expedition. When I left the "Picayune," therefore, I was but
little wiser than when I entered it; and yet somehow the whole scheme
had taken a fast hold on my imagination, which readily filled in the
details of what I was ignorant. The course of reading in which I had
indulged on board Sir Dudley's yacht was doubtless the reason of this.
My mind had laid up so many texts for adventurous fancies that on
the slightest pretext I could call up any quantity of enterprise and
vicissitude.

A hundred times I asked myself if it were likely that any of these Texan
adventurers would accept, of my services to wait upon them. I was not
ignorant of horses, a tolerably fair groom, could cook a little,--that
much I had learned on board the yacht; besides, wherever my
qualifications failed, I had a ready witted ingenuity that supplied the
place almost as well as the "real article."

"Ah!" thought I, "who knows how ma