o sayin', he took a purse out of his pocket, in which he carried
his change. It was plenty full; there may have been some twenty dollars
in it; and as he drew the string, it was as if the devil laughed and
nodded to me out of the openin' of the purse.

"'Halves!' cried I.

"'No, not that,' says he; 'I've wife and child, and what I have belongs
to them; but half a dollar'----

"'Halves!' cried I again; 'or else'----

"'Or else?' repeated he: and, as he spoke, he put the purse back into
his pocket, and laid hold of the rifle which was slung on his shoulder.

"'Don't force one to do you a mischief,' said he. 'Don't' says he; 'we
might both be sorry for it. What you're thinkin' of brings no blessin'.'

"I was past seein' or hearin'. A thousand devils from hell were
possessin' me.

"'Halves!' I yelled out; and, as I said the word, he sprang out of the
saddle, and fell back over his horse's crupper to the ground.

"'I'm a dead man!' cried he; as well as the rattle in his throat would
let him. 'God be merciful to me! My poor wife, my poor children!'"

Bob paused; he gasped for breath, and the sweat stood in large drops
upon his forehead. He gazed wildly round the room. The judge himself
looked very pale. I tried to rise, but sank back in my chair. Without
the table I believe I should have fallen to the ground.

There was a gloomy pause of some moments' duration. At last the judge
broke silence.

"A hard, hard case!" said he. "Father, mother, children, all at one
blow. Bob, you are a bad fellow; a very bad fellow; a great villain!"

"A great villain," groaned Bob. "The ball was gone right through his
breast."

"Perhaps your gun went off by accident," said the judge anxiously.
"Perhaps it was his own ball."

Bob shook his head.

"I see him now, judge, as plain as can be, when he said, 'Don't force me
to do you a mischief. We might both be sorry for it.' But I pulled the
trigger. His bullet is still in his rifle.

"When I saw him lie dead before me, I can't tell you what I felt. It
warn't the first I had sent to his account; but yet I would have given
all the purses and money in the world to have had him alive agin. I must
have dragged him under the Patriarch, and dug a grave with my huntin'
knife; for I found him there afterwards."

"You found him there?" repeated the judge.

"Yes. I don't know how he came there. I must have brought him, but I
recollect nothin' about it."

The judge had risen from his cha