leton, reading. "Tush, this is a tavern bill!"

"Ha, ha, so it is," exclaimed Robinson. "Well, I have been keeping that
there paper for a week past, thinking it was my certificate--and, like a
fool, I have gone and tore up the t'other."

"We are wasting time, gentlemen," said the commander. "Turn this fellow
loose, and let him go his ways. But hark you, did you hear of a fight
lately on Pedee, between some of our people and Marion--three days ago?"

"They talked of such a thing on the river," replied Horse Shoe.

"Well, and what was said?"

"Nothing in particular that I can bear in mind."

"Like all the rest we have tried to get out of him! You don't even know
which party got the better?"

"Oh, I have hearn that, sir."

"What did you hear? speak out!"

"Shall I give you the circumlocutory account of the matter?" asked Horse
Shoe, "or did you wish me to go into the particulars?"

"Any account, so that it be short."

"Then I have hearn that Marion gave the t'other side a bit of a
beating."

"Aye, aye, so I suppose! Another tale of this Jack the Giant Killer! And
what has become of Marion?"

"That's onbeknownst to me," replied Horse Shoe.

"Do you remember the fool we met at the Waxhaws last May?" asked one of
the officers present, of another. "This fellow might pass for a full
brother in blood--only I think this clown has the less wit of the two."

"As heavy a lump, certainly," replied the officer. "This, you say, is
the first time you have been in Carolina?"

"To my knowledge," replied the sergeant.

"It is broad day, gentlemen," said Tarleton; "we have been squandering
precious time upon an empty simpleton. Give him his beast and let him be
gone. Sirrah, you are free to depart. But, look you, if I hear any
reports along the road of your having seen me, or a word about my
coming, I'll ferret you out and have you trussed upon a stake twenty
feet long."

"Thank your honor," said Horse Shoe, as he left the tent. "I never
troubles my head with things out of my line."

Then seeking his horse he leisurely rode back by the way he had come;
and as soon as he found himself beyond the outposts of the corps, he
urged Captain Peter to as much speed as the late arduous duties of the
good beast left him power to exert.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

AN INCIDENT OF THE WAR NOT UNFAMILIAR TO THE TIME.

Breakfast was just over when Robinson was seen, from the windows of Mrs.
Markham's parlor, pricking along the ave