of themselves, and
on how slight a claim they possess all the blessings of their lot;
if they will but bethink them that the sun and the flowers, the
ever-rolling sea, and the leafy forest are all their inheritance,--that
for them, as for all, the organ peals through the dim-vaulted aisle
with promises of eternal happiness,--and lastly, that, with all the wild
contentions of men's passions, there is ever gushing up in the human
heart a well of kind and affectionate thoughts; like those springs we
read of, of pure water amid the salt ocean, and which, taken at the
source, are sweet and good to drink from. Men are not so bad by nature;
it is the prizes for which they struggle, the goals they strive for,
corrupt them! Make of this fair earth a gaming-table, and you will have
all the base passions of the gamester around it."

"Bad luck to it for gambling," said Dalton, whose intelligence was just
able to grasp at the illustration; "I wish I 'd never seen a card; and
that reminds me, Hans, that maybe you 'd give me a bit of advice. There
was a run against me last night in that thieving place. The 'red' came
up fourteen times, and I, backing against it every time, sometimes ten,
sometimes twenty,----ay, faix! as high as fifty 'Naps.' you may think
what a squeeze I got! And when I went to old Kraus this morning, this
is what he sticks in my hand instead of a roll of banknotes." With these
words Dalton presented to Hans the printed summons of the "Tribunal."

"A Gerichts-Ruf!" said Hans, with a voice of deep reverence; for he
entertained a most German terror for the law and its authority. "This is
a serious affair."

"I suppose it is," sighed Dalton; "but I hope we 're in a Christian
country, where the law is open?"

Hans nodded, and Peter went on:----

"What I mean is, that nothing can be done in a hurry; that when we have
a man on our side, he can oppose and obstruct, and give delays, picking
a hole here and finding a flaw there; asking for vouchers for this and
proofs for that, and then waiting for witnesses that never come, and
looking for papers that never existed; making Chancery of it, Hans, my
boy,--making Chancery of it."

"Not here,--not with us!" said Hans, gravely. "You must answer to this
charge to-day, and before four o'clock too, or to-morrow there will be
writ of 'contumacy' against you. You have n't got the money?"

"Of course I haven't, nor a ten-pound note towards it."

"Then you must provide securi