g
his face to the aperture--"Gentlemen, I was mistaken. Our spies say you
are not come to the election, but that you are from lower Mississippi."

"And if we are, what then?" replied I dryly. "Didn't we tell you as much
at first?"

"So you did, but I wasn't obliged to believe it; and d'ye see, they're
a-canvassing here for next election, and we've got an opposition in the
other tavern; and as we knew that Bob Snags's people were expectin' two
men from down stream, we thought you might be they."

"And so, because you thought we should vote against you, you allowed us
to stick in the mud, with the agreeable prospect of either breaking our
necks or tumbling into the Tennessee?" said Richards laughing.

"Not exactly that," replied the Yankee; "though if you had been the two
men that were expected, I guess we shouldn't have minded your passing
the night in the swamp; but now we know how matters stand, and I'm come
to offer you my house. There'll be an almighty frolic here to-night, and
p'r'aps somethin' more. In my house you can sleep as quiet as need be."

"It won't do, Mr Shifty," said Richards, with a look that must have
shown the Yankee pretty plainly that his object in thus pressing his
hospitality upon us was seen through; "it won't do, we will stop where
we are."

The latch of the door leading into the kitchen was just then lifted,
which brought our conversation to a close. During the confabulation, our
Yankee's sharp grey eyes had glanced incessantly from us to the door;
and hardly was the noise of the latch audible, when his face
disappeared, and the old waistcoat again stopped the aperture.

"He wants to get us away," said Richards, "because he fears that our
presence here will give Bob too much weight and respectability. You see
they have got their spies. If Bob and his people find that out, there
will be a royal row. A nice disreputable squatter's hole we have fallen
into; but, bad as it is, it is better than the swamp."

The table was now spread; the tea and coffee-pots smoking upon it. The
supper was excellent, consisting of real Alabama delicacies. Pheasants
and woodcocks, and a splendid haunch of venison, which, in spite of the
game-laws, had found its way into Johnny's larder--wheat, buckwheat, and
Indian-corn cakes; the whole, to the honour of Bainbridge be it spoken,
cooked in a style that would have been creditable to a Paris
_restaurateur_. By the help of these savoury viands, we had already, to