his dealings with us, you
know, and has rather kept out of our way. Besides that, he has been
thorough-going at several camp-meetings lately, and, when a man begins
to appear over-honest, I think it high time he should be looked after by
all parties."

"You are right, Dillon, you are right. I should not trust it to paper
either. I will go myself. But you shall along with me, and on the way I
will put you in a train for bringing out certain prisoners whom it is
necessary that we should secure before the sitting of the court, and
until it is over. They might be foolish enough to convict themselves of
being more honest than their neighbors, and it is but humane to keep
them from the commission of an impropriety. Give orders for the best two
of your troop, and have horses saddled for all four of us. We must be on
the road."

Dillon did as directed, and returned to the conference, which was
conducted, on the part of his superior, with a degree of excitation,
mingled with a sharp asperity of manner, something unwonted for him in
the arranging of any mere matter of business.

"Maxson will not refuse us; if he do, I will hang him by my
saddle-straps. The scoundrel owes his election to our votes, and shall
he refuse us what we ask? He knows his fate too well to hesitate. And
then, Dillon, when you have his commission for the arrest of this boy,
spare not the spur: secure him at all hazards of horseflesh or personal
inconvenience. He will not resist the laws, or anything having their
semblance; nor, indeed, has he any reason--"

"No reason, sir! why, did you not say he had killed Forrester?" inquired
his companion.

"Your memory is sharp, master lieutenant; I did say, and I say so still.
But he affects to think not, and I should not be at all surprised if he
not only deny it to you, but in reality disbelieve it himself. Have you
not heard of men who have learned in time to believe the lies of their
own invention? Why not men doubt the truth of their own doings? There
are such men, and he may he one of them. He may deny stoutly and
solemnly the charge, but let him not deceive you or baffle your pursuit.
We shall prove it upon him, and he shall hang, Dillon--ay, hang, hang,
hang--though it be under her very eyes!"

It was in this way that, in the progress of the dialogue which took
place between the chief and his subordinate, the rambling malignity
would break through the cooler counsels of the villain, and dark
glimpses of