get along. "Strange,"
thought Roch, "he cannot have met with an accident!" In a short time a
colored boy came along. Maroney stopped him, talked to him a moment,
then gave him the note and the boy ran off, while he remained in the
same place.

[Illustration: "_As he gaily entered the gallery twirling his handsome
cane, he was welcomed by a pleasant smile from a young lady, an
octoroon._"--Page 73.]

What would Roch now not have given to have been able to cut himself in
two, leaving one part of himself to watch Maroney while the other
followed the boy? This, however, being one of the few things that he
could _not_ do, he was obliged to let the boy go while he watched
Maroney. The affair seemed to have come to the sticking point. Maroney's
face showed deep anxiety, and his limping was all a sham. The boy had
taken a note to some place, but where, was the question.

In about twenty minutes the boy returned and said something to Maroney,
but what it was Roch could not find out. Maroney handed the boy some
money and he immediately ran off, while the former dropped his limp,
walked to the hotel, and went at once to his room.

_CHAPTER IX._

Roch walked carelessly past the door of Maroney's room and saw him
busily engrossed in packing up. He lost no time. Where Maroney was going
he did not know. He rushed to the office, paid his bill, went to his
room, changed his clothes, and in less than ten minutes issued from the
hotel, again the plodding Dutchman. Aladdin with his wonderful lamp,
could not have brought about a much more rapid transformation. As he
reached the sidewalk, Maroney had just stepped into a hack, and he heard
him order the driver to get to the steamboat landing as soon as
possible. Roch, with his long pipe and old satchel, followed on behind,
and the citizens he met gazed in wonder to see a sleepy Dutchman travel
at such a rate.

The "Mary Morrison," one of the fast boats of the river, was just
casting off from the wharf as they arrived, and they had barely time to
get on board. Roch had taken up his old quarters in the steerage, and
thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful view as they steamed up past the famous
Crescent City. He had now time to wipe the sweat from his brow, and
wonder what place Maroney was going to. He concluded that he was going
back to Montgomery by way of Memphis. True, it was rather an out of the
way route, but such seemed to be the sort that Maroney preferred. He
could not tell t