the bottle under the table, with a praiseworthy regard for appearances.

Simon breathed deep and hard, and again there was an exasperating tremor
in his low-pitched voice, which drawled more than usual, as he said:

"No; 't ain't the latest news! What I specially come to tell you was,
that if you ever lay hands on that child agin, I'll shoot you deader 'n
any door-mat you ever wiped your great cowardly boots on!"

Each word of this speech seemed to cleave its separate, individual way
with a slow, ponderous significance. Christie passed his hand absently
down the barrel of the pistol on his knees, till his fingers rested on
the trigger. If he had had any murderous intention, however, he seemed
to think better of it, for he contented himself with a shrug and an
oath, and the supercilious inquiry: "What are you givin' us, anyway?"
The man of the black beard eyed his movements with a furtive interest.
Amberley stood a moment, to give a still more deliberate emphasis to his
words, thinking, the while, that in spite of the unvarnished frankness
on either side, neither he nor his adversary had quite made each other
out. Then he turned and threaded his way among the tables to the door,
as quietly and composedly as he had come; while the girl on the stage
repeated the assertion in regard to "Jinny's" smart looks, in which she
seemed still unable to awaken the slightest interest in those who should
have been her auditors. Before he had passed Enoch's chair, which was
placed discreetly near the exit, the pair of gamblers were at it again.
Not even the luck had been turned by the interruption. Christie was
sweeping in the chips to the same refrain of the "cranberry tarts."

When, to Simon's infinite relief, little Eliza appeared at school the
next morning, the teacher scrutinized her jealously in search of bumps
and bruises. There was nothing to be seen but the original bump, and
that was reduced in size, though somewhat intensified in color, since
the day before.

"I wonder how I should feel when I had shot him!" thought Simon, and his
mind reverted to the rattlesnake, and to a sneaking compunction which
had seized him when the tail gave its death-quiver. The possibility of
missing his mark when once obliged to shoot did not enter his mind. He
was fighting on the side of right and justice, and possessing, as he
did, but small knowledge of the world and its ways, he had implicit
faith in the triumphant outcome of all such encou