ir, and was walking up and down the
room, apparently in deep thought. Suddenly he stopped short.

"What have you done with his money?"

"I took his purse, but buried his belt with him, as well as a flask of
rum, and some bread and beef he had brought away from Johnny's. I set
out for San Felipe, and rode the whole day. In the evenin', when I
looked about me, expectin' to see the town, where do you think I was?"

The judge and I stared at him.

"Under the Patriarch. The ghost of the murdered man had driven me there.
I had no peace till I'd dug him up and buried him again. Next day I set
off in another direction. I was out of tobacco, and I started across the
prairie to Anahuac. Lord, what a day I passed! Wherever I went, _he_
stood before me. If I turned, _he_ turned too. Sometimes he came behind
me, and looked over my shoulder. I spurred my mustang till the blood
came, hopin' to get away from him, but it was all no use. I thought when
I got to Anahuac I should be quit of him, and I galloped on as if for
life or death. But in the evenin', instead of bein' close to the
salt-works as I expected, there I was agin, under the Patriarch. I dug
him up a second time, and sat and stared at him, and then buried him
agin."

"Queer that," observed the judge.

"Ay, very queer!" said Bob mournfully. "But it's all no use. Nothin'
does me any good. I sha'n't be better--I shall never have peace till I'm
hung."

Bob evidently felt relieved now, he had in a manner passed sentence on
himself. Strange as it may appear, I had a similar feeling, and could
not help nodding my head approvingly. The judge alone preserved an
unmoved countenance.

"Indeed!" said he, "indeed! You think you'll be no better till you're
hung."

"Yes," answered Bob, with eager haste. "Hung on the same tree under
which _he_ lies buried."

"Well, if you will have it so, we'll see what can be done for you. We'll
call a jury of the neighbours together to-morrow."

"Thank ye, squire," murmured Bob, visibly comforted by this promise.

"We'll summon a jury," repeated the Alcalde, "and see what can be done
for you. You'll perhaps have changed your mind by that time."

I stared at him like one fallen from the clouds, but he did not seem to
notice my surprise.

"There is, perhaps, another way to get rid of your life, if you are
tired of it," he continued. "We might, perhaps, hit upon one that would
satisfy your conscience."

Bob shook his head. I involuntarily