ng, "Sarvent, Marsters."

Handcuffs were put upon him, and amid a profound silence he was led
forth and lifted into a cart. The two sheriffs took their places upon
each side of him, and the cortege moved off.

The people, having sufficiently recovered from their shock to jostle
one another out of the building, stood huddled together like a flock
of frightened sheep; but when the cavalcade had driven off, a subdued
clamor of voices arose, all unanimous in contempt for "dese here po'
white, who'd ha' knowed better 'n to come meddlin' long o' Marster's
folks ef Marster wan't down on de bed an' mos' like to die!"

That the dull and simple brain of the old man should have been capable
of any formulated plan is not to be imagined, and when upon the
following day he was taken before the justice for examination, he
merely acted from an instinct of affection in shielding his young
master, even at the risk of his own life. When questioned, he
preserved an obstinate silence; then, when forced to speak, denied
having seen either of the boys upon the day of their disappearance,
but, when cross-questioned, admitted that he had seen Mars Phil in the
Vine Ridge woods; and finally, when taxed with the blood upon the
ground and with having hidden the guns, he reluctantly admitted that
"ef Mars Phil had been hurted" he had done it.

"What did you do with the body?" questioned the justice; "throw it in
the river?"

A murmur from the prisoner, which passed for assent, concluded the
examination, and the justice, sorely puzzled, committed him to jail to
await his trial.

With the early morning, the country people had begun to gather around
the courthouse, and when told that the old miscreant had actually
confessed to the murder, their innate love of justice gave place to
fierce anger; and when the prisoner, gray with terror, bent and
tottering, was led forth, he was surrounded by a silent but determined
crowd, who, thrusting the sheriffs aside, seized and drove him before
them, and had already slipped the noose about his neck, when an
inarticulate shout caused the crowd to sway,--a horseman dashed into
their midst and proclaimed that both boys were alive. Their
disappearance had been explained on that morning by a letter forwarded
by hand, which ran as follows:--

On Board the Chieftain.

Dear Uncle,--This afternoon, while hunting in the Vine Ridge woods,
Phil's gun went off and wounded him in the side. I was at my wit's end
wh