men, some of whom
proceeded to pat him on the back in compliment to his courage, while
others ran forward to hasten the approach of the expected antagonist.

The appearance of the comer, at a distance, promised an equal match to
tho captain of horse-thieves; but Roland perceived, from the increase of
merriment among the Kentuckians, and especially from his host joining
heartily in it, that there was more in Bloody Nathan than met the eye.
And yet there was enough in his appearance to attract attention, and to
convince the soldier that if Kentucky had shown him, in Captain
Stackpole, one extraordinary specimen of her inhabitants, she had others
to exhibit not a whit less remarkable. It is on the frontiers, indeed,
where adventurers from every corner of the world, and from every circle
of society are thrown together, that we behold the strongest contrasts,
and the strangest varieties, of human character.

Casting his eyes down the road, or street (for it was flanked by the
outer cabins of the settlement, and perhaps deserved the latter name),
which led, among stumps and gullies, from the gate of the stockade to the
bottom of the hill, Forrester beheld a tall man approaching, leading an
old lame white horse, at the heels of which followed a little silky
haired black or brown dog, dragging its tail betwixt its legs, in
compliment to the curs of the Station, which seemed as hospitably
inclined to spread a field of battle for the submissive brute, as their
owners were to make ready another for its master. The first thing that
surprised the soldier in the appearance of the person bearing so
formidable a name, was an incongruity which struck others as well as
himself, even the colonel of militia exclaiming, as he pointed it out
with his finger, "It's old Nathan Slaughter, to the backbone! Thar he
comes, the brute, leading a horse in his hand, and carrying his pack on
his own back! But he's a marciful man, Old Nathan, and the horse thar,
old White Dobbin, war foundered and good for nothing ever since the boys
made a race with him against Sammy Parker's jackass."

As he approached yet higher, Roland perceived that his tall, gaunt figure
was arrayed in garments of leather from top to toe, even his cap, or hat
(for such it seemed, having several broad flaps suspended by strings, so
as to serve the purpose of a brim), being composed of fragments of tanned
skins rudely sewed together. His upper garment differed from a hunting
shirt