wanted nothing more from them than to be put on the surveyor's
line again; and, when directed to the blaze, speedily left the sound of
their axes far behind. In half an hour he reached other traces of
mankind--a regularly chopped road, where the trees had been felled for
the proper width, and only here and there an obstinate trunk had come
down wrongly, and lay right across, to be climbed over or crept under
according to the wayfarer's taste. In marshy spots he was treated to
strips of corduroy; for the settled parts of the country were near.

'Holloa! Uncle Zack, is that you?'

The person addressed stood in a snake-fenced field, superintending a
couple of labourers. He turned round at the hail, and stared as if he
did not believe his senses.

'Wal, I guess I warn't never skeered in my life before. They're all out
lookin' for you--Nim, an' the whole "Corner" bodily. Your brother's
distracted ravin' mad this two days huntin' the bush; but I told him
you'd be sartin sure to turn up somehow. Now, whar are you runnin' so
fast? There ain't nobody to hum, an' we 'greed to fire the rifles as a
signal whoever fust got tidins of you. Three shots arter another,' as
young Wynn fired in the air. 'Come, quick as wink, they'll be listenin'.'

'Robert will know the report,' observed Arthur, with a smile, to think
of his pleasure in the recognition, 'if he's near enough.'

'We'll make tracks for the "Corner," I guess,' said Uncle Zack with
alacrity; 'that war the meetin'-place, an' you must be powerful hungry.
I'd ha' been to sarch for you to-day, only them Irish fellers at the
clearin' wanted lookin' arter precious bad.' ('Lucky I got in them kegs
o' whisky; he'll have to stand treat for the neighbours,' thought 'cute
Uncle Zack in a sort of mental parenthesis.) 'But now do tell! you must
ha' gone a terrible big round, I guess. They took the Indjin out to
foller your trail; them savages has noses an' eyes like hounds. We'll
fire my rifle from the store; it's bigger than yourn.'

His abstraction of mind during Arthur's narrative was owing to a
judicious maturing of certain plans for exacting the greatest amount of
profit from the occurrence; but he contrived to interlard his listening
with such appropriate interjections as, 'Now do tell! How you talk! Wal,
I kinder like to know!' mentally watering his whisky the while.

Mrs. Zack, also scenting the prey afar off, was polite as that lady
could be to good customers only. Arthur's i