t want to be rid
of him, I stopped persistin'; but now I wish I had persisted, for then
he'd 'listed, and most likely would be alive now, through not bein' shot
in the back by a city fool with a gun."

"I do not believe," said Mrs. Archibald to her husband, when they had
retired to their cabin, "that that young woman is going to be much of a
companion for Margery. I think she will prefer your society to that of any
of the rest of us. It is very plain that she thinks it is your
individuality which has been asserted."

"Well," said he, rubbing his spectacles with his handkerchief before
putting them away for the night, "don't let her project her individuality
into my sport. That's all I have to say."

CHAPTER XV

A NET OF COBWEBS TO CAGE A LION

"I think there's something besides a lunatic that you are afraid of," said
Martin to Matlack the next morning, as they were preparing breakfast.

"What's that?" inquired the guide, sharply.

"It's that fellow they call the bishop," said Martin. "He put a pretty
heavy slur on you. You drove down a stake, and you locked your boat to it,
and you walked away as big as if you were the sheriff of the county, and
here he comes along, and snaps his fingers at you and your locks, and, as
cool as a cucumber, he pulls up the stake and shoves out on the lake, all
alone by herself, a young lady that you are paid to take care of and
protect from danger."

"I want you to know, Martin Sanders," said Matlack, "that I don't pitch
into a man when he's in his bed, no matter what it is that made him take
to his bed or stay there. But I'll just say to you now, that when he gets
up and shows himself, there'll be the biggest case of bounce in these
parts that you ever saw."

"Bounce!" said Martin to himself, as he turned away. "I have heard so much
of it lately that I'd like to see a little."

Matlack also communed with himself. "He's awful anxious to get up a
quarrel between me and the parson," he thought. "I wonder if he was too
free with his tongue and did get thrashed. He don't show no signs of it,
except he's so concerned in his mind to see somebody do for the parson
what he ain't able to do himself. But I'll find out about it! I'll thrash
that fellow in black, and before I let him up I'll make him tell me what
he did to Martin. I'd do a good deal to get hold of something that would
take the conceit out of that fellow."

Mr. Arthur Raybold was a deep-minded person, and sometimes