ld Porter well, for he is still alive and bears a pretty bad
reputation still, though we have never been able to bring him to book. I
remember all the circumstances of that affair, for I served upon the
posse. While Porter was in prison his house was kept for him by a
married daughter and her husband. There was a strong suspicion that the
man was one of the gang too, but we couldn't prove it. They have lived
there ever since. They have got five or six field hands, and are said to
be well off. We have no doubt they have got a still somewhere in the
swamps, but we have never been able to find it. I will send a man off
to-morrow to make inquiries whether any stranger has arrived there
lately. Of course, Pearson will not have kept that name, and he will not
have appeared as John Porter, for he would be arrested on a fresh
warrant at once for his share in that former business. I think, Captain
Wingfield, you had better register at the hotel here under some other
name. I don't suppose that he has any fear of being tracked here; still
it is just possible his father may have got somebody here and at
Florence to keep their eyes open and let him know if there are any
inquiries being made by strangers about a missing negress. One cannot be
too careful. If he got the least hint, his son and the woman would be
hidden away in the swamps before we could get there, and there would be
no saying when we could find him."

Vincent took the sheriff's advice, and entered his name in the hotel
books as Mr. Vincent. Late in the evening the sheriff came round to him.

"I have just sent summonses to six men. I would rather have had two or
three more, but young men are very scarce around here now; and as with
you and myself that brings it up to eight that ought to be sufficient,
as these fellows will have no time to summon any of their friends to
their assistance. Have you a rifle, Captain Wingfield?"

"No; I have a brace of revolvers."

"They are useful enough for close work," the sheriff said, "but if they
see us coming, and barricade their house and open fire upon us, you will
want something that carries further than a revolver. I can lend you a
rifle as well as a horse, if you will accept them."

Vincent accepted the offer with thanks. The next morning at daylight he
went round to the sheriff's house, where six determined-looking men,
belonging to the town or neighboring farms, were assembled. Slinging the
rifle that the sheriff handed hi