imes more despisable,--I am, d--n me; for I'm a white Injun, and
there's nothing more despisable. But here's the case," he added, working
himself into a rage,--"I won't be a rascla for nothing,--I'm sworn to it:
and this is a job you must pay for to the full vally, or you're none the
better on it."

"It will make your fortune," said his companion in iniquity: "there was
bad luck about us before; but all is now safe--The girl will make us
secure."

"I don't see into it a bit," said Doe, morosely: "you were secure enough
without her. The story of the other gal you know of gave you the grab on
the lands and vall'ables; and I don't see what's the good to come of this
here other one, no how."

"Then have you less brains, my jolly Jack, then I have given you credit
for," said the other. "The story you speak of is somewhat too flimsy to
serve us long. We must have a better claim to the lands than can come of
possession in trust for an heir not to be produced, till we can find the
way to Abraham's bosom. We have now obtained it: the younker, thanks to
your Piankeshaw cut-throats, is on the path to Paradise; the girl is left
alone, sole claimant, and heiress at law. In a word, Jack, I design to
marry her;--ay, faith will-she nill-she, I will marry her: and thereby,
besides gratifying certain private whims and humours not worth
mentioning, I will put the last finish to the scheme, and step into
the estate with a clear conscience."

"But the will, the cussed old will?" cried Doe. "You've got up a cry
about it, and there's them that won't let it drop so easy. What's an heir
at law agin a will? You take the gal back, and the cry is, 'Where's the
true gal, the major's daughter?' I reckon, you'll find you're jist got
yourself into a trap of your own making!"

"In that case," said the stranger, with a grin, "we must e'en act like
honest men, and find (after much hunting and rummaging, mind you!) the
major's _last_ will."

"But you burned it!" exclaimed Doe: "you told me so yourself."

"I told you so, Jack; but that was a little bit of innocent deception, to
make you easy. I told you so; but I kept it, to guard against accidents.
And here it is, Jack," added the speaker, drawing from amid the folds of
his blanket a roll of parchment, which he proceeded very deliberately to
spread upon the table: "The very difficulty you mention occurred to me; I
saw it would not do to raise the devil, without retaining the power to
lay him. Here