bayou." The two men obeyed.
"Get something, Mex, and wipe up that puddle," pointing to the blood
on the floor. "You must keep Hell clean."

The wild creature, quivering with ferocious passions, put a fondling
arm around the manslayer.

"Mex wake captain. Help kill. Mex Castiliano. Nigger
wench--no!--Injun squaw--no!--Your woman."

XVI. A PATRIOT NOT TO BE TAMPERED WITH.

Four men on horseback were nearing the country house of Colonel George
Morgan, a veteran of the Revolutionary War, living near Cannonsburg,
Pennsylvania. Two of the riders were Colonel Morgan's stalwart sons,
and they were escorting Aaron Burr and Colonel Dupeister, one of
Burr's confederates. The ex-Vice-President rode beside the elder
brother, who was an officer of high rank in the militia.

"Speaking of Washington County, General Morgan,--are the people of
your neighborhood prosperous and contented?"

"We are a community of farmers, very prosperous and hopeful. Our
population is increasing rapidly. We have no cause for discontent."

"What is the condition of the new college at the county seat? I am
told there is an educational awakening among your young men."

"Yes; we are proud of Jefferson College; the institution is now in its
fourth year, and is flourishing beyond expectation."

"You call it Jefferson College; it was named for Washington _and_
Jefferson, was it not? The lesser star is in the ascendant, and
twinkles amazingly now that the greater has set. Don't you think we
are too much be-Jeffersoned?"

"Thomas Jefferson is an able man," was the commonplace reply, spoken
bluntly, and accompanied by a look of irritation at the sarcastic
question. Burr, conscious of the disapproval implied in the officer's
curt answer, managed to change partners so as to ride abreast of the
younger brother, Thomas, while Dupeister spurred forward and engaged
John in discourse on stock-raising and the prospect of crops. With
Thomas, an aspiring soul, in the flush of those discursive hopes and
speculations which make ambitious youth restless, Burr employed his
usual suasive arts, hopeful of winning a recruit.

"Your brother and I were speaking about the outlook here, for
enterprising citizens. What are your pursuits? Are you a Knight of the
Plow?"

"No, sir; not permanently; I am trying to make a lawyer of myself."

"That's good in a way, as a stepping-stone. The study of the law
disciplines the mind, but is not profitable otherwise. The pract