For Alfred Brandon, there was surprise enough without that. The presence of Pierre Robideau, whose name he had heard distinctly pronounced, with the sight of a tall form, dimly shaded under the tree, which he knew must be that of the _murdered_ man, was sufficient to astonish him to his heart's content. It had this effect; and he stood behind the cottonwood, whose shelter he had reached, in speechless wonder, trembling from the crown to the toes. Though his fear soon forsook him, his wonder was scarce diminished, when the dialogue between Jerry Rook and Pierre Robideau furnished him with a key to the mysterious re-appearance of the latter upon the banks of Caney Creek. "God a mercy!" gasped he, stepping from behind the huge tree trunk, and looking after them as they were entering the house. "Here's news for Messrs. Buck, Slaughter, Grubbs, Spence, and Randall! Glad they'll be to hear it, and at last get relief from their debts. This I reckon'll cancel it. "Ah!" he exclaimed, adding a fearful oath; "it's all very well for them, but what matters the money to me? I'd pay it ten times over and all my life to have that girl; and hang me if I don't have her yet for a wife or for worse. Choc still alive and kicking! Cut down then before he got choked outright! Darned if I didn't more than half suspect it from the way old Rook talked about the burying of the body. The precious old pirate; hasn't he bilked us nicely? "Mr Pierre Robideau! yes that was the name, and this is the very fellow. I remember his voice, as if it were but yesterday. Missing for six years! Been to California! and picked up fifty thousand worth of yellow gravel! Lodged it in a bank, too, at San Francisco. No doubt going there again, and will be wanting to take Lena Rook along with him." At this thought another fierce oath leaped from his lips, and the light of the fire-flies as they flitted past his face showed an expression upon it that might have done credit to the stage of a suburban theatre. "Never!" he ejaculated. "Never shall _she_ go, if I can find means to prevent it." He stood for a time reflecting. "There's a way," he again broke forth, "a sure way. Buck would be the man to lend a hand in it. He's crazed about the girl himself, and when he knows there's no chance for him, and thinks it's this fellow stands in the way; besides, he wants money, and wouldn't mind risking something to get it. Buck's the man!" "If he don't I'll do it myself. I will, by the Etarnal! I'd rather die upon the scaffold than this Indian should have her--he or any one else. I've been wild about her for six years. Her refusing has only made me worse. "There can't be much danger if one only gets the chance. He's been away once, and nobody missed him. He can go gold gathering again--this time never to return. He shall do it." An oath again clinched the ambiguous threat. Apparently relieved by having expressed his dark determination, he proceeded in a calmer strain.