you for
your generous entertainment of me and my follower. But you must not
deny me one small favor--take this ring as a keepsake from Jeremiah
Hodge."

He waited not for a reply, but gently raising her hand, which was a
very pretty one, he placed on her finger Salome Rosemary's diamond
ring! Bowing a graceful adieu, the versatile fugitive rode away at his
faithful servant's side.

The brace of horsemen had not trotted a mile before they were
overtaken on the highway by a rider who accosted them very cordially.
His sorrel steed kept even pace with the other two horses.

"A nice frosty morning," chirpped the friendly bore. "I hope I don't
intrude. I like company myself when I am on the road. Which way are
you bound? Pensacola?"

Burr made no reply, but his attache answered freely:

"Yes, Pensacola. Which is the best road from here to Carson's Ferry?"

"The best road and the shortest is by way of the cut-off. I am going
that way--I'll show you the road."

All three cantered forward. In half an hour they came to a place where
the road made an abrupt turn, and just at this bend a file of mounted
and armed soldiers stopped their progress. Lieutenant Gaines and
Colonel Perkins rode at the head of the troopers. The lieutenant waved
a military salute and spoke.

"Have I the honor of addressing Colonel Burr?"

"You have that honor; I am Aaron Burr."

"You are my prisoner."

"By what authority do you detain me, a private citizen, attending
peaceably to my own affairs, on a public thoroughfare?"

"I arrest you, Aaron Burr, in the name and at the instance of the
United States of America. I hold in my hand the proclamation of
President Jefferson. I am a lieutenant in the United States Army. The
gentleman at your side is Theodore Brightwell, a sheriff, and the
officer accompanying me is Colonel Nicholas Perkins, who detected you
last evening when you rode up to the Piny Woods Tavern."

Burr surrendered. That night he slept, a prisoner, in Fort Stoddart.

XXVIII. WHAT BECAME OF THEM.

Almost eight years had elapsed since the date of Burr's arrest and
imprisonment, when on the first day of May, 1815, two young families
loitered away an afternoon in picnic outing on Blennerhassett Island.
The party consisted of eight persons--Colonel Warren Danvers, his
wife and a small daughter; and Mr. and Mrs. Arlington, their two
pretty little girls and a boy-baby. The children, excepting the
infant, were old enough to en