will_ do?"

The series of reflections, and questions, runs rapidly as thought
itself. And to the last, quick as thought, comes an answer--a plan
which promises a solution of the difficulty. He thinks of killing the
dog--cutting its throat with his knife.

Only for an instant is the murderous intent in his mind. In the next he
changes it, saying:

"I can't do that--no; the poor brute so 'fectionate an' faithful!
'Twould be downright cruel. A'most the same as murderin' a man. I wont
do it."

Another pause spent in considering; another plan soon suggesting itself.

"Ah!" he exclaims, with air showing satisfied, "I have it now. That'll
be just the thing."

The "thing" thus approved of, is to tie the hound to a tree, and so
leave it.

First to get hold of it. For this he turns towards the animal, and
commences coaxing it nearer. "Come up, ole fella. You aint afeerd o'
me. I'm Jupe, your master's friend, ye know. There's a good dog! Come
now; come!"

The deer-hound, not afraid, does not flee him; and soon he has his hands
upon it.

Pulling a piece of cord out of his pocket, he continues to apostrophise
it, saying:

"Stand still, good dog! Steady, and let me slip this round your neck.
Don't be skeeart. I'm not goin' to hang you--only to keep you quiet a
bit."

The animal makes no resistance; but yields to the manipulation,
believing it to be by a friendly hand, and for its good.

In a trice the cord is knotted around its neck; and the mulatto looks
out for a tree to which he may attach it.

A thought now strikes him, another step calling for caution. It will
not do to let the dog see him go off, or know the direction he takes;
for some one will be sure to come in search of Clancy, and set the hound
loose. Still, time will likely elapse; the scent will be cold, as far
as the creek's edge, and cannot be lifted. With the water beyond there
will be no danger.

The runaway, glancing around, espies a palmetto brake; these forming a
sort of underwood in the cypress forest, their fan-shaped leaves growing
on stalks that rise directly out of the earth to a height of three or
four feet, covering the ground with a _chevaux de frise_ of deepest
green, but hirsute and spinous as hedgehogs.

The very place for his purpose. So mutters he to himself, as he
conducts the dog towards it. Still thinking the same, after he has tied
the animal to a palmetto shank near the middle of the brake, and there
left