listen to every man who thinks it worth while to jabber in your ear, you
will find harm enough, without going far to seek it."

"I thought it was only civil to speak when I was spoken to," replied
Mary, with an air of mortification. "But I will be gone this moment:"
and with these words the girl went forth upon her errand.

A moment only elapsed when the door was abruptly thrown open, and the
tall and swarthy figure of Wat Adair strode into the room. The glare of
the blazing faggots of pine which had been thrown on the fire to light
up the apartment, fell broadly over his person, and flung a black and
uncouth shadow across the floor and upon the opposite wall; thus
magnifying his proportions and imparting a picturesque character to his
outward man. A thin, dark, weather-beaten countenance, animated by a
bright and restless eye, expressed cunning rather than hardihood, and
seemed habitually to alternate between the manifestations of waggish
vivacity and distrust. The person of this individual might be said, from
its want of symmetry and from a certain slovenly and ungraceful stoop in
the head and shoulders, to have been protracted, rather than tall. It
better deserved the description of sinewy than muscular, and
communicated the idea of toughness in a greater degree than strength.
His arms and legs were long; and the habit of keeping the knee bent as
he walked, suggested a remote resemblance in his gait to that of a
panther and other animals of the same species; it seemed to be adapted
to a sudden leap or spring.

His dress was a coarse and short hunting-shirt of dingy green, trimmed
with a profusion of fringe, and sufficiently open at the collar to
disclose his long and gaunt neck; a black leather belt supported a
hunting knife and wallet; whilst a pair of rude deer-skin moccasins and
a cap manufactured from the skin of some wild animal, and now deprived
of its hair by long use, supplied the indispensable gear to either
extremity of his person.

Adair's first care was to bestow in their proper places his rifle and
powder-horn; then to disburden himself of a number of squirrels which
were strung carelessly over his person, and, finally, to throw himself
into a chair that occupied one side of the fire-place. The light for a
moment blinded him, and it was not until he shaded his brow with his
hand and looked across the hearth, that he became aware of the presence
of the strangers. His first gaze was directed to Butler