se,
though he had now made good his escape.

We did not expect to see Mr Tidey for some time, should he have
succeeded in conveying Dio to a safe asylum, nor was it likely that Mr
McDermont would return until he had made arrangements for locating
himself on his new purchase. He would, however, certainly send back his
companion to report the progress he had made. Great was our surprise,
therefore, when one evening, soon after dark, he and Peter arrived at
the house, looking travel-stained and weary.

"I hope you are satisfied with Swampyville?" said my father, after he
had welcomed our friend.

"Faith, sir, I should be an easily pleased gentleman if I was," answered
Mr McDermont. "I've been thoroughly gulled by that fellow Chouse. As
it was my first, so it shall be my last journey in search of a new
location. I won't trouble you with an account of all the adventures we
met with. For the first two or three days we got on pretty well,
barring the rough accommodation and the rougher inhabitants of this wild
country. I thought we must have taken the wrong road. Nothing could I
hear of Swampyville, although the map showed me that we were pursuing
the right course. At last we arrived at a river which I guessed fell
into the mighty Missouri, but our location was some way farther down.
Accordingly, leaving our horses, I hired a boat, in the expectation of
reaching it more easily by water than by land. Faith, sir, I was not
wrong in that respect. The plan showed me a fine city, rising on the
banks of the stream, with broad, handsome streets running at right
angles to each other, a court-house, gaol, two banks, three or four
hotels, masonic hall, and churches and chapels innumerable, proving what
a moral and religious people were to be my neighbours. At length I
reached the spot where the city should have been, but the water had
risen and had, I concluded, flowed over the whole, for not a building of
any sort could I discover. Certain well defined land-marks existed, and
I could make out that I was in the midst of Swampyville, but not a trace
could I discover of the property of which I had become the happy
possessor. I stood up and gazed round me in despair. `Yes, massa,'
said Peter, letting his oars drop from his hands, `dis Swampyville, no
doubt 'bout dat, only de houses and de streets not here, much easier to
draw dem on de paper dan to build dem up.' Peter was right; I had been
bamboozled and lost my dollars