he was the thief! The planter knew nothing of Jack, but that he was a new comer, and demanded that he should be forced to give up the horse, and punished to the extremity of the frontier code.

But this was not Hinch's policy yet awhile. He knew the proofs were not strong enough to make the charge plausible even before a Lynch Court, of which he himself was both the prosecutor, judge, and executioner. His object was to first get up a hue and cry against Long, and, under cover of a general excitement, accomplish his devilish purposes without question or mock trial even. So that, after a great deal of manœuvring, for eight or ten days, during which time the charge against Long was industriously circulated by his myrmidons, so as to attract general attention and expectation, as to the result of his investigations, he proclaimed far and wide that he had found the horse at last, hid in a timber bottom near Long's! This, of course, seemed strong confirmation of his guilt, and, though the mob were most of them horse thieves, to all intents, yet it was an unpardonable crime for any one to practise professionally among themselves; so that Long was loudly denounced and threatened on every side, and ordered to leave the country forthwith.

These proceedings Jack by no means comprehended, or felt disposed to be moved by; but he gave them to understand that he meant to remain where he was, until it entirely suited his convenience to go, and that, if his time and theirs did not happen to agree, they might make the most of it. And Jack was such

an unpromising snagging-looking somebody, and his reputation, which had now spread everywhere, of possessing such consummate skill with the rifle, that he thought it a condescension to shoot anywhere else but in the eyes, was so formidable, that no individual felt disposed to push the matter to a personal collision. He might, still, therefore, have been left in quiet, but Hinch had unfortunately taken up the impression, from Jack's conduct in the shooting-match affair, that he must be a coward, and, if this were true, then all his skill amounted to but little, and, like any other bloody wolfish brute, he followed him up the more eagerly for this very reason, which would have disarmed a generous foe. Besides, Jack had given fresh and weightier matter of offence, in that he had refused to obey, and defied his authority as Regulator. The very being of that authority seemed to require now that a wholesome example should be made of him, for the awing of all refractory persons hereafter. The wretch, who was cunning as ferocious, and had sworn in his inmost heart to ruin and disgrace Long, from the moment of that triumph, now availed himself remorselessly of all his influence, and knowledge of the society around him, to accomplish it. Several horses now disappeared, and robberies of other kinds, perpetrated with singular dexterity, followed in quick succession. All these things he managed, through the clamours of his scoundrelly troops, to have laid, directly or indirectly, to Jack's door.

But in the popular estimation they counted as nothing in fixing the charge of dangerous malice upon poor Long, in comparison with one other incident. About this time not only Hinch himself, but every other person who had made himself conspicuous, by insisting upon Jack's guilt, and the necessity of punishing him summarily, began to lose, every day or two, valuable stock, which was wantonly shot down sometimes in sight of their houses; and it soon began to be remarked that every animal lost in this way had been shot in the eye! This was instantly associated, of course, with Jack's well-known and curious predilection for that mark in hunting, and a perfect storm of indignation followed. A meeting was at once convened at "the store," of which the planter was the chairman; and at it, by a unanimous vote, a resolution was passed, condemning Jack Long to be whipped and driven out of the country, and Hinch, with his Regulators, appointed to carry it into effect! He could hardly contain himself for joy; for now, whatever extreme his pitiless malignity might choose to indulge itself in, he had no fear of after-claps or questioning. The meeting had been a mere form at any rate. But these "formalities" are all-powerful everywhere; and unsettled and elementary as was the condition of society here, this ruffian leader of ruffians felt the necessity of acting under their sanction, though he himself had dictated it. He would and could have consummated his purposes without it; but the faint life of conscience within him-by a logic

peculiar to itself-felt relieved of the grievous responsibility of such a crime, in the sense of participating with so many others. Many a man has gone to the devil in a crowd who would have been horrified at undertaking the journey alone.

CHAPTER II.

T was the third day after this meeting. Jack, during all these persecutions, had deported himself

with the most stolid indifference. Avoiding all intercourse with the settlers, he had continued to hunt with even more assiduity than usual, and was in a great measure ignorant of the unenviable notoriety he was enjoying. He had heard something of the charges with which his character had been assailed, but attributed them all to the jealous enmity he had incurred at the shooting match. He could understand perfectly how