k with the almost certainty of being taken, as
several stout negroes drew nearer and nearer his chosen hiding-place.

He uttered a low, breathed imprecation upon his useless right arm, and the
man whose sure aim had made it so. "But for you," he muttered, grinding
his teeth, "I'd sell my life dear."

But the rain, which had slackened for a time, again poured down in
torrents, the torches sputtered and went out, and the pursuers turned back
in haste to gain the firmer soil, where less danger was to be apprehended
from alligators, panthers, and poisonous reptiles.

The search was kept up for some time longer, with no light but an
occasional flash from the skies; but finally abandoned, as we have seen.

Jackson passed several hours most uncomfortably and painfully on his
elevated perch, quaking with fear of both man and reptile, not daring to
come down or to sleep in his precarious position, or able to do so for the
pain of his wound, and growing hour by hour weaker from the bleeding which
it was impossible to check entirely.

Then his mind was in a state of great disturbance, His wound must be
dressed, and that speedily; yet how could it be accomplished without
imperiling life and liberty? Perhaps he had now two new murders on his
hands; he did not know, but he had at least attempted to take life, and
the story would fly on the wings of the wind; such stories always did.

He had been lurking about the neighborhood for days, and had learned that
Dr. Balis, an excellent physician and surgeon, lived on a plantation, some
two or three miles eastward from Viamede. He must contrive a plausible
story, and go to him; at break of day, before the news of the attack on
Viamede would be likely to reach him. It would be a risk, but what better
could be done? He might succeed in quieting the doctor's suspicions, and
yet make good his escape from the vicinity.

The storm had spent itself before the break of day, and descending from
his perch with the first faint rays of light that penetrated the gloomy
recesses of the swamp, he made his way out of it, slowly and toilsomely,
with weary, aching limbs, suffering intensely from the gnawings of hunger
and thirst, the pain of his injury, and the fear of being overtaken by the
avengers of his innocent victims. Truly, as the Bible tells us, "the way
of transgressors is hard."

The sun was more than an hour high when Dr. Balis, ready to start upon his
morning round, and pacing thoughtfull