ce.

Soon after nightfall, and when his mind was in a condition resembling the
hovel in which he lay--a cheerless ruin, lighted only by occasional
flickerings from a fire of spirit fast smouldering into ashes--he heard a
step enter the door, and, by and by, a jabbering debate commenced between
the newcomer and his guards, which resulted in the latter presently
leaving the cabin. The intruder then stepped up to the fire, which he
stirred into a flame; and seating himself full in its light, revealed,
somewhat to Roland's surprise, the form and visage of the renegade, Abel
Doe, whose acts on the hill-side had sufficiently impressed his
lineaments on the soldier's memory. He eyed the captive for awhile very
earnestly, but in deep silence, which Roland himself was the first to
break.

To the soldier, however, bent upon preserving the sullen equanimity which
was his best substitute for resignation, there was enough in the
appearance of this man to excite the fiercest emotions of indignation.
Others might have planned the villany which had brought ruin and misery
upon his head; but it was Doe who, for the bravo's price, and with the
bravo's baseness, had set the toils around him, and struck the blow.
It was, indeed, only through the agency of such an accomplice that
Braxley could have put his schemes into execution, or ventured even to
attempt them. The blood boiled in his veins as he surveyed the mercenary
and unprincipled hireling, and strove, though in vain, to rise upon his
fettered arms, to give energy to his words of denunciation.

"Villain!" he cried, "base, wretched, dastardly caitiff! have you come to
boast the fruits of your rascally crime?"

"Right, captain!" replied Doe, with a consenting nod of the head, "you
have nicked me on the right p'int: villain's the true word to begin on;
and, perhaps, 'twill be the one to end on: but that's as we shall
conclude about it, after we have talked the matter over."

"Begone, wretch,--trouble me not," said Roland, "I have nothing to say to
you, but to curse you."

"Well, I reckon that's natteral enough, too, that cussing of me," said
Doe, "seeing as how I've in a manner deserved it. But there's an end to
all things, even to cussing; and, may be, you'll jist take a jump the
other way, when the gall's over. A friend to-day, an enemy to-morrow, as
the saying is; and you may jist as well say it backwards; for, as things
turn up, I'm no sich blasted enemy, jist now, no-way no-h