emained in a state of great excitement; I felt that it
would be impossible for me to be any longer on good terms with him, and
I revolved the question in my mind, till, at last, worn out by
excitement, I fell fast asleep.

A short time before daylight, I started up at what I thought was a faint
cry, but I listened, and hearing nothing more, I again fell asleep, and
it was broad daylight when I arose; my first thoughts were naturally of
Jackson, and I looked at where he lay, but he was no longer there--his
bed-place was empty. I was astonished, and after a moment's thought, I
recollected the cry I had heard in the night, and I ran out of the cabin
and looked around me; but I could see nothing of him. I then went to
the edge of the flat rock upon which the cabin was built and looked over
it; it was about thirty feet from this rock to the one below, and nearly
perpendicular. I thought that he must have gone out in the night, when
intoxicated with liquor, and have fallen down the precipice; but I did
not see him as I peered over. "He must have gone for water," thought I,
and I ran to the corner of the rock, where the precipice was much
deeper, and looking over, I perceived him lying down below without
motion or apparent life. I had, then, judged rightly. I sat down by
the side of the pool of water quite overpowered; last night I had been
planning how I should destroy him, and now he lay dead before me without
my being guilty of the crime. "Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord," were
the words that first escaped my lips; and I remained many minutes in
deep thought. At last it occurred to me that he might not yet be dead;
I ran down the cliff, and, clambering over the rocks, arrived breathless
at the spot where Jackson lay. He groaned heavily as I stood by him.

"Jackson," said I, kneeling down by him, "are you much hurt?" for all my
feelings of animosity had vanished when I perceived his unhappy
condition. His lips moved, but he did not utter any sound. At last he
said, in a low voice, "Water." I hastened back as fast as I could to
the cabin, got a pannikin half full of water, and poured a little rum in
it out of the bottle. This journey and my return to him occupied some
ten minutes. I put it to his lips, and he seemed to revive. He was a
dreadful object to look at. The blood from a cut on his head had poured
over his face and beard, which were clotted with gore. How to remove
him to the cabin I knew not. It