ead, gave an indefinable sort of
glance at the purse, and then springing forward, fixed his small,
cunning eyes upon those of my guide, while a smile of strange meaning
spread over his repulsive features.

The two men stood for the space of a minute, staring at each other,
without uttering a word. An infernal grin distended Johnny's coarse
mouth from ear to ear. My guide seemed to gasp for breath.

"I've money," cried he at last, striking the but of his rifle violently
on the ground. "D'ye understand, Johnny? Money; and a rifle too, if
needs be."

He stepped to the table and filled another glass of raw spirits, which
disappeared like the preceding one. While he drank, Johnny stole out of
the room so softly that my companion was only made aware of his
departure by the noise of the wooden latch. He then came up to me, took
me in his arms without saying a word, and, carrying me to the bed, laid
me gently down upon it.

"You make yourself at home," snarled Johnny, who just then came in
again.

"Always do that, I reckon, when I'm in a tavern," answered my guide,
quietly pouring out and swallowing another glassful. "The gentleman
shall have your bed to-day. You and Sambo may sleep in the pigsty. You
have none though, I believe?"

"Bob!" screamed Johnny furiously.

"That's my name--Bob Rock."

"For the present," hissed Johnny, with a sneer.

"The same as yours is Johnny Down," replied Bob in the same tone. "Pooh!
Johnny, guess we know one another?"

"Rayther calkilate we do," replied Johnny through his teeth.

"And have done many a day," laughed Bob. "You're the famous Bob from
Sodoma in Georgia?"

"Sodoma in Alabama, Johnny. Sodoma lies in Alabama," said Bob, filling
another glass. "Don't you know that yet, you who were above a year in
Columbus, doin' all sorts of dirty work?"

"Better hold your tongue, Bob," said Johnny, with a dangerous look at
me.

"Pooh! Don't mind him, he won't talk, I'll answer for it. He's lost the
taste for chatterin' in the Jacinto prairie. But Sodoma," continued Bob,
"is in Alabama, man! Columbus in Georgia! They are parted by the
Chatahoochie. Ah! that was a jolly life we led on the Chatahoochie. But
nothin' lasts in this world, as my old schoolmaster used to say. Pooh!
They've druv the Injuns a step further over the Mississippi now. But it
was a glorious life--warn't it?"

Again he filled his glass and drank.

The information I gathered from this conversation as to the previo