audience slipped away, just to see "what was the matter with the d----d
fools, and why they made such a devil of a row." The example found
imitators, and presently not above thirty listeners remained collected
round the speaker. Insubordination also broke out in the different corps
that were exercising, and a full third of the men left their ranks and
scampered towards the wood. Only the group in front of the chandler's
store remained grave and steady in the midst of the general excitement.

From out of the dark cypress forest that stretches southwards from the
shore of the Atchafalaya, a figure had emerged which judging from its
dress, belonged to the Indian race. The savage had crept along the edge
of the forest in order to get near the town; but alarmed perhaps by the
crowd and noise in the latter, he had not ventured to take the road
leading to it, but had struck into a side-path across a cotton field. He
was about to climb over the fence, when he was descried by the two
idlers already mentioned, who no sooner saw him than, although their
heads were tolerably full of whisky, they commenced a rapid pursuit. One
of the first took the precaution to place his pint glass in safety
behind a hedge, and then followed his companion, a swift-footed son of
the west, who already had the Indian in his clutches. The Redskin was so
exhausted that he would evidently not have been able to proceed much
further. The staggering and unsteady state of his captor, however, did
not escape him, and he gave him a sudden push, which stretched him at
full length in the mud.

"Stop!" shouted the backwoodsman, no way disconcerted by his fall;
"Stop! or I will so maul your ugly face that you sha'n't be able to eat
for a week."

The Indian seemed to understand, and stopped accordingly, at the same
time assuming an attitude indicative of a firm resolution to defend
himself. He grasped his knife, and boldly confronted his pursuers, who
on their part examined him with looks of curiosity and of some
suspicion. The appearance of an Indian in this neighbourhood was nothing
very unusual, seeing that they had a village scarcely a hundred miles
off to the north-west, and that they continually made excursions of
several hundred miles into the States in all directions, and even to the
capital. For a long time past their diminished numbers had not allowed
then to attempt any thing hostile against their white neighbours, who
each year drew nearer to them: