"Won't they be glad to hear of this resurrection! I wonder if they're still at Slaughter's. They went there--sure to be there yet. I'll go. It'll make their hearts happier than all the liquor in the tavern. Good night, Jerry Rook! Take care of your guest. Next time he goes off it won't be by your sending of him." After this sham apostrophe he struck off across the field, and, once more clambering over the fence, he took the road leading to Helena. STORY ONE, CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE. THE STRANGER GUEST. The fifth instalment of "hush-money," that had been paid to Jerry Rook, proved to be the last. On meeting the contracting parties, and applying for the sixth, he found to his great surprise, as well as chagrin, that the grand secret was gone out of his keeping, and his power over them at an end! They were not only prepared to repudiate, but talked of his refunding, and even threatened to lynch him upon the spot. So far from making his claim, he was but too glad to get out of their company. It is probable they would have insisted upon the repayment, or put lynching in practice, but for fear of the scandal that either must necessarily create in the community. To this was Jerry indebted for his escape from their vengeful indignation. "Who could have told them that Pierre Robideau still lived?" This was the question put by Jerry Rook to himself, as he rode back to his house, filled with mortification. He asked it a score of times, amid oaths and angry ejaculations. It could not have been Pierre himself, who was now his welcome guest, and had been so ever since the night of that strange rencontre under the cottonwood? Though the returned gold-seeker had strolled about the clearing, with Lena for a companion, he had never once gone beyond its boundaries, and could scarce have been seen by any outsider. No one-- neighbour or stranger--had been near the house. The half-dozen negroes who belonged to Jerry Rook, had no previous acquaintance with Pierre Robideau's person; and, even had it been otherwise, they would scarce have recognised him now. It was not through them the information had reached Alfred Brandon and his associates. Who, then, could have been the informer? For the life of him Jerry Rook could not guess; and Pierre himself, when told of it, was equally puzzled upon the point. The only conjecture at all probable, was, that some one had seen and identified him--one of the gang themselves; or it might have been some individual totally uninterested, who, by chance, had seen and recognised him, soon after his arrival at the stand. Now that his being alive was known to them, there was no longer any object in his keeping concealed; and he went about the settlements as of yore, at times visiting the town of Helena, for the purchase of such commodities as he required.