"Naw, sir," returned the deputy. "This hyar man," laying his hand on his bulky companion's shoulder, "knowed whar Lar'bee's mother, a widder lady, lived, an' we-uns called him 'Lar'bee' an' 'Jasper,' an' he answered ter 'em both; an' his mother called him 'Sonny.' He's a wild-catter, sure. He's"--He caught himself suddenly, remembering the prepossession against the revenue force which often animates even law-abiding citizens of this region. "But he needn't hev fired at _me_! I got nuthin' agin moonshiners. I b'long ter the County, not ter the Nunited States,--to the County!" "Whar's this man now?" demanded Cap'n Lucy circumspectly. The alert, sinister face of the deputy changed. But he sought to bluff off the anxieties and conscious criminations which crowded upon him. He swung his hat, which had a bullet-hole in it, gayly in his light grasp, and his dark eyes twinkled as he met the gaze of his host. "Ye air a powerful good hand at axin' riddles, but this'n air too hard fur me! I _dunno_, an' these men _dunno_! I fired back in self-defense at the miserable fool--I hed been funnin' all along, cap'n. I shot his horse, I know, an' the critter slipped, an' the whole caboodle went back'ards over the bluffs--an'--an'--he mought be dead or alive--Air--air that a cheer?" He had suddenly lost his self-control; he sank back into a seat and seemed gasping for breath. The details of their immediate errand thus devolved upon his comrades,--a lantern and a guide to search the slope where the victim of the deputy's pleasantry had fallen. "'Dolphus air sech a turrible bouncin' wild buck," said his friend from "the t'other e-end o' the county," who had begun to resume his remonstrant air, as of "I-told-you-so." He was a slow and serious-minded man, with a scant appreciation of even the most symmetrical jest, but when the joke seemed furnished with such distortions of sequelæ his gravity grew aggressive. "'Dolphus kin crack a toler'ble funny joke wunst in a while, but this hyar one air goin' ter make him laff on the t'other side o' his mouth." "Who war it ez ye war arter, sure enough?" asked Cap'n Lucy. "A stranger what they 'lowed war puttin' up with you-uns, Cap'n Tems." "Hey?" cried Cap'n Lucy, with a high quaver of excited delight. "He hev gone; but, my stars! what a hearty welcome ye mought hev hed with him!" "What's he done?" demanded Larrabee, speaking for the first time, addressing the friend of the deputy. "Shot a man in Tanglefoot Cove," he replied, looking somewhat intently at the silhouette in the window. "What did ye 'low his name war?" asked Larrabee, placing one hand behind his ear as if he had not heard what indeed they had not disclosed. "Espey,--John Espey from Tanglefoot, o' course. He hev been hidin' out cornsider'ble time." There was a sudden significant silence which the stranger felt, but did not comprehend. Then Cap'n Lucy, recovering his poise, remarked:--