you mean the same fellow you were telling us
about, who dared come to the shingle-makers' settlement downriver, and
was tarred and feathered, or rather ridden on a rail, with a warning
that he'd get the other if he ever showed his face there again?"

"Them's him," said the swamp boy, with a nod. "His name it's Barker,
an' he's a moughty fierce man. But let me tell yuh, he ain't been nigh
our place sence. Cause why, he knowed the McGee allers keeps his word."

"Do you suppose he'd know you, Tony?" asked Phil.

"Reckons now, as how he would, seein' as how I had tuh bring him his
grub that time he was held in our place. He knowed as I was McGee's
boy."

"I just asked," Phil went on, "because it struck me that if we should
happen to have a call from Sheriff Barker, it might be best for you to
keep out of sight. If he's the kind of man you say, he might just
trump up some kind of a charge in order to carry you back with him.
And once they got you in town, there's Colonel Brashears ready to make
a charge against you for licking his cub of a son. How about that,
Tony?"

"Reckons as how yuh has struck it 'bout right, sah," replied the other,
uneasily. "This Barker, he's the sort tuh hold a grudge a long time.
It sorter rankled him tuh be rid out o' the squatter settlement on a
rail, an' he an' officer o' the law, with all hands a larfin' an'
makin' fun of him. Never seen anybody so tearin' mad. He swore he'd
come back with a company o' sojers, an' clean us out. But it's be'n a
heap o' moons now, sah; an' I take notice Barker he ain't never showed
up yit."

"If the runaway negro only knew that, I suppose he'd make straight for
your settlement; because he'd be safe there from the sheriff?"
suggested Phil.

"That don't foller, sah," the swamp boy immediately replied. "We-uns
ain't gwine tuh let all sorts o' trash settle among us. The McGee
ain't settin' hisself up ag'in law an' order. He don't want no fight
with the hull State. More'n a few times they be a 'scaped convict hit
our place; but McGee, he wouldn't allow o' his stayin' longer'n tuh git
a meal, an' p'raps an ole gun, so's he could shoot game. Then he had
tuh beat it foh the coast; an' was told that if he war ever caught
inside ten mile o' our place he'd be give over tuh the sheriff."

"The baying seems to have stopped, now," remarked Larry.

"Reckon as how the dawgs has lost the trail," Tony explained. "Yuh
see, they's so much water around hya