"Do you not keep a house for the accommodation of travelers?" said Bragg. "For the entertainment of man and beast?" "But not for the entertainment of man and devil! That monkey is a born devil, sir!" "He was a royal present from her Majesty the Queen of Madagascar," said Bragg. "A royal present from his Majesty the Old Boy!" said Boniface. "He gets loose just when he pleases. He chased the cooks out of the kitchen, and ate up the eggs they had got for breakfast. He stole a negro baby out of its cradle and hid it in the wood-house." "He is a cannibal!" said Seddon. "One of the captain's long-tailed African friends," said Toney. "Dines on babies," said Tom. "He'll be after a Dutchman next." "Out of this house he goes, and you, too!" said the landlord. "Here, Cæsar, Scipio! carry Captain Bragg's baggage down and set it on the pavement." The negroes proceeded to obey orders. "And now be off!" said Boniface. "I don't ask you to settle your bill; I want no money from you. I want you to leave, and take that monkey with you!" "You had better go," said Seddon to Bragg, "or he will call on the sheriff to summon a _posse comitatus_ and put you out." "I want no comitatus, Mr. Seddon," said the landlord, overhearing the remark; "I can manage him and his monkey both." The sagacity of Bragg enabled him to comprehend the situation. He perceived that the indignant Boniface was not to be intimidated even by a harpoon or a boomerang. Toney Belton had whispered to the cosmopolite that the landlord was the very man who had shot General Packenham from his horse, and thereby gained for Old Hickory his glorious victory on the banks of the Mississippi; and Tom Seddon asseverated that he had decapitated three Indians with a bowie-knife, in a hand-to-hand encounter, in the Everglades of Florida. Upon calm consideration Bragg determined to leave the hotel. His baggage was conveyed to a boarding-house which Seddon had found for him in the suburbs of the town. Here he secured comfortable quarters for himself and an asylum for his monkey. At night, after smoking their cigars, Belton proposed to his friend that they should call on Botts. They were sitting in his room, with Wiggins, talking to the unfortunate man, and getting him in a cheerful mood by pleasant conversation, when Pate rushed in with horror depicted in his countenance. "What's the matter, Mr. Pate?" said Belton. "Oh!--oh!--oh!" "What's the matter?" said Wiggins. "Help--help--help!" "What's the matter? What's the matter?" exclaimed everybody at once. "Perch--Perch!" "What has he done?" said Wiggins. "Has committed suicide!" And Pate rushed from the room like one bereft of his reason. Toney, Tom, and Wiggins ran after him, while Botts jumped from his bed and hurried through the door; and several affrighted females loudly screamed as they beheld him swiftly gliding along the corridor, in his white garments, and looking like a ghost. CHAPTER XI.