"Gentlemen," whispered he, removing the remains of an old waistcoat, which supplied the place of one of the absent panes, and then applying his face to the aperture--"Gentlemen, I was mistaken. Our spies say you are not come to the election, but that you are from lower Mississippi." "And if we are, what then?" replied I dryly. "Didn't we tell you as much at first?" "So you did, but I wasn't obliged to believe it; and d'ye see, they're a-canvassing here for next election, and we've got an opposition in the other tavern; and as we knew that Bob Snags's people were expectin' two men from down stream, we thought you might be they." "And so, because you thought we should vote against you, you allowed us to stick in the mud, with the agreeable prospect of either breaking our necks or tumbling into the Tennessee?" said Richards laughing. "Not exactly that," replied the Yankee; "though if you had been the two men that were expected, I guess we shouldn't have minded your passing the night in the swamp; but now we know how matters stand, and I'm come to offer you my house. There'll be an almighty frolic here to-night, and p'r'aps somethin' more. In my house you can sleep as quiet as need be." "It won't do, Mr Shifty," said Richards, with a look that must have shown the Yankee pretty plainly that his object in thus pressing his hospitality upon us was seen through; "it won't do, we will stop where we are." The latch of the door leading into the kitchen was just then lifted, which brought our conversation to a close. During the confabulation, our Yankee's sharp grey eyes had glanced incessantly from us to the door; and hardly was the noise of the latch audible, when his face disappeared, and the old waistcoat again stopped the aperture. "He wants to get us away," said Richards, "because he fears that our presence here will give Bob too much weight and respectability. You see they have got their spies. If Bob and his people find that out, there will be a royal row. A nice disreputable squatter's hole we have fallen into; but, bad as it is, it is better than the swamp."