y won't have me now, I know. Won't you stand
by me, Levin? She's goin' to marry you, and I'll give ye all I've
found."

"Huldy!" Levin exclaimed; "oh, must I leave her yonder at the tavern
another night?"

"No," answered Hulda, coming forward; "we are both preserved, my friend.
But I must have made my bed in the forest this night if God had not
directed me to you."

As they clasped each other fondly, Senator Clayton exclaimed,

"What? Doves among the rattlesnakes. Goy!"

CHAPTER XLIII.

PLEASURE DRAINED.

The dawn had not broken when that fleet traveller, Joseph Johnson,
anticipating his enemies by hours, noiselessly tied his horses at the
tavern he had erected, and nearly fell into the arms of Owen Daw.

"Joe," said that scapegrace, "thar's queer people hanging around yer.
They say a blue chist has been dug outen the field yonder, an' bones in
it. I 'spect they're a-lookin' fur you, Joe."

"I'll give you a job, Owen," said Johnson, quick on his feet as the boy.
"Run these horses into my wagon thar while I git some duds together
before I hop the twig."

Slipping to the rear of the house, he entered, and looked in Patty's
room--she was not there; a slight smell of gunpowder seemed to be in the
hall. Passing rapidly up the stairs, Johnson saw a light shine in
McLane's room, and he kicked the door wide open, exclaiming,

"Bad luck everywhere; the gal's stone dead; the beaks are round us. Wake
up, McLane!"

"Joe!" said a voice, and Patty Cannon threw her arms around him.

"To burning fire with you!" bellowed the filial son. "Take your arms
away!"

"Let us make up, Joe! Everybody has run away from us. Huldy is gone,
too. McLane is dead."

"Dead? Dead where?"

"There"--she pointed to a feather-bed lying upon the floor, the outlines
of which seemed unusually pointed and stiff for feathers, though it was
sown up in its own blankets and quilts. Joe Johnson touched it with his
foot and bounded back.

"Hell-cat!" he cried, "is this one of your tricks?"

"I did it fur you, Josie. He brought it on hisself. There's his
portmanteau full of money to pay our travelling expenses. He's sewed up
beautiful, and in the bay you can drop him to the bottom."

Joe Johnson's face became almost livid pale, and, rushing upon Patty
Cannon with both hands raised, he struck her to the floor and put his
boot upon her.

"If I had time, I'd have your life," he hissed. "But it would lose the
uptucker a job. To-night I l