ious occasions it
had already done, and leave him again free to his old practices in the
same region. A feeling of pride, which made him unwilling to take a
suggestion of fear and flight from the course of others, had some share
in this decision; and, if we add the vague hungering of his heart toward
the lovely Edith, and possibly the influence of other pledges, and the
imposing consideration of other duties, we shall not be greatly at a
loss in understanding the injudicious indifference to the threatening
dangers which appears to have distinguished the conduct of the otherwise
politic and circumspect ruffian.

That night, after his return from the village, and the brief dialogue
with Chub Williams, as we have already narrated it he retired to the
deepest cell of his den, and, throwing himself into a seat, covering his
face with his hands, he gave himself up to a meditation as true in its
philosophy as it was humiliating throughout in its application to
himself. Dillon, his lieutenant--if such a title may be permitted in
such a place, and for such a person--came to him shortly after his
arrival, and in brief terms, with a blunt readiness--which, coming
directly to the point, did not offend the person to whom it was
addressed--demanded to know what he meant to do with himself.

"We can't stay here any longer," said he; "the troops are gathering all
round us. The country's alive with them, and in a few days we shouldn't
be able to stir from the hollow of a tree without popping into the gripe
of some of our hunters. In the Wolf's Neck they will surely seek us;
for, though a very fine place for us while the country's thin, yet even
its old owners, the wolves, would fly from it when the horn of the
hunter rings through the wood. It won't be very long before they pierce
to the very 'nation,' and then we should have but small chance of a long
grace. Jack Ketch would make mighty small work of our necks, in his
hurry to go to dinner."

"And what of all this--what is all this to me?" was the strange and
rather phlegmatic response of the outlaw, who did not seem to take in
the full meaning of his officer's speech, and whose mind, indeed, was at
that moment wandering to far other considerations. Dillon seemed not a
little surprised by this reply, and looked inquiringly into the face of
the speaker, doubting for a moment his accustomed sanity. The stern look
which his glance encountered directed its expression elsewhere, and,
aft