"If Missa Basset chase Missa Holden, in de moonlight, and fall into a hole, is I to blame?" "I don't believe it was Holden. I believe it was all a plan between you and some other fellow to git me into the scrape. Come, now, Prime," he said, moderating his voice into a less ill-natured tone, "tell us, and I'll let you off this time." "O, Lord!" exclaimed Primus, lifting up his hands, with open palms, and rolling up his eyes towards the moon, "de man is crazy wid de fright, and he see Missa Holden, too, widin two tree feet." He turned now on his way home, as if disdaining longer converse with one who refused to listen to reason. The constable followed at his side, growling the whole way, and reproaching the General with his perfidy, the latter protesting it was Basset's own fault, "when he knew dere was a hole dere," and that he would have nothing to do with him, or with the cunning old man, for the future. Upon arriving at the bars, Primus, notwithstanding his indignation at the suspicion cast on his honor, courteously invited Basset to take a drink with him, but the latter, suspecting, perhaps, another snare, was in no humor to accept the invitation; and, turning away without even noticing the black's good-night, directed hasty steps towards the lights of the town. CHAPTER XXI. "Who called you forth from night and utter death, From dark and icy caverns, called you forth, Down those precipitous black-jagged rocks, For ever shattered, and the same for ever? Who gave you your invulnerable life, Your strength, your speed, your fury, and your joy, Unceasing thunder and eternal foam?" COLERIDGE.