s body?" asked Joe, commanding his voice.

"Bein' as 'twas warm weather, I thought I'd better bury him at once."

"Were you arrested?"

"Yes, and tried for murder, but my lawyer proved that I was crazy
when I did it, and so I got off."

"Do such things often happen at the North?" asked the Pike County man.

"Not so often as out here and down South, I guess," said Joshua.
"It's harder to get off. Sometimes a man gets hanged up North for
handlin' his gun too careless."

"Did you ever kill anybody else?" asked the Pike man, eying Joshua
rather uneasily.

"No," said Mr. Bickford. "I shot one man in the leg and another in
the arm, but that warn't anything serious."

It was hard to disbelieve Joshua, he spoke with such apparent
frankness and sincerity. The man from Pike County was evidently
puzzled, and told no more stories of his own prowess. Conversation,
died away, and presently all three were asleep.

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE EVENTS OF A NIGHT

The Pike County man was the first to fall asleep. Joe and Mr.
Bickford lay about a rod distant from him. When their new comrade's
regular breathing, assured Joe that he was asleep, he said:

"Mr. Bickford, what do you think of this man who has joined us?"

"I think he's the biggest liar I ever set eyes on," said Joshua
bluntly.

"Then you don't believe his stories?"

"No--do you?"

"I believe them as much as that yarn of yours about your Cousin
Bill," returned Joe, laughing.

"I wanted to give him as good as he sent. I didn't want him to do
all the lyin'."

"And you a deacon's son!" exclaimed Joe, in comic expostulation.

"I don't know what the old man would have said if he'd heard me, or
Cousin Bill, either."

"Then one part is true--you have a Cousin Bill?"

"That isn't the only part that's true; he did help me and dad hayin'."

"But his head is still safe on his shoulders?"

"I hope so."

"I don't think we can find as much truth in the story of our friend
over yonder."

"Nor I. If there was a prize offered for tall lyin' I guess he'd
stand a good chance to get it."

"Do you know, Joshua, fire-eater as he is, I suspect that he is a
coward."

"You do?"

"Yes, and I have a mind to put him to the test."

"How will you do it?"

"One day an old hunter came into my restaurant, and kept coming for a
week. He was once taken prisoner by the Indians, and remained in
their hands for three months. He taught me the Indian war-whoop, and
ou