t was too imperfect to suffer him to
shoot with any reasonable certainty of success, and the half of the
reward sought by his pursuers, depended upon the outlaw being taken
alive!

But, there was no disappointment among the hunters. Allowing the outlaw
sufficient time to return to his retreats, Chub Williams slipped down
his tree--the rest of the party slowly emerged from their several places
of watch, and drew together for consultation.

In this matter, the idiot could give them little help. He could, and
did, describe, in some particulars, such of the interior as he had been
enabled to see on former occasions, but beyond this he could do nothing;
and he was resolute not to hazard himself entering the dominion of a
personage, so fearful as Guy Rivers, in such companionship as would
surely compel the wolf to turn at bay. Alone, his confidence in his own
stealth and secresy, would encourage him to penetrate; but, _now!_--he
only grinned at the suggestion of the hunters saying shrewdly: "No!
thank you! I'll stay out here and keep Chub's company."

Accordingly, he remained without, closely gathered up into a lump,
behind a tree, while the more determined Georgians penetrated with
cautious pace into the dark avenue, known in the earlier days of the
settlement as a retreat for the wolves when they infested that portion
of the country, and hence distinguished by the appellation of the Wolf's
Neck.

For some time they groped onward in great uncertainty as to their
course; but a crevice in the wall, at one point, gave them a glimmer of
the moonlight, which, falling obliquely upon the sides of the cavern,
enabled them to discern the mouth of another gorge diverging from that
in which they were. They entered, and followed this new route, until
their farther progress was arrested by a solid wall which seemed to
close them in, hollowly caved from all quarters, except the one narrow
point from which they had entered it.

Here, then, they were at a stand; but, according to Chub's directions,
there must be a mode of ingress to still another chamber from this; and
they prepared to seek it in the only possible way; namely, by feeling
along the wall for the opening which their eye had failed to detect.
They had to do this on hands and knees, so low was the rock along the
edges of the cavern.

The search was finally successful. One of the party found the wall to
give beneath his hands. There was an aperture, a mere passage-way for