_Zoe._ O! good, good nurse; you will, you will. _Dido._ No--g'way. _Zoe._ Then I shall never leave Terrebonne--the drink, nurse; the drink; that I may never leave my home--my dear, dear home. You will not give me to that man? Your own Zoe, that loves you, aunty, so much, so much.--[_Gets phial._] Ah! I have it. _Dido._ No, missey. O! no--don't. _Zoe._ Hush! [_Runs off,_ L. 1. E. _Dido._ Here, Solon, Minnie, Grace. _They enter._ _All._ Was de matter? _Dido._ Miss Zoe got de pizen. [_Exit,_ L. _All._ O! O! _Exeunt,_ L. Scene II.--_Cane-brake Bayou.--Bank,_ C.--_Triangle Fire,_ R. C.--_Canoe,_ C.--M'Closky _discovered asleep._ _M'Closky._ Burn, burn! blaze away! How the flames crack. I'm not guilty; would ye murder me? Cut, cut the rope--I choke--choke!--Ah! [_Wakes._] Hello! where am I? Why, I was dreaming--curse it! I can never sleep now without dreaming. Hush! I thought I heard the sound of a paddle in the water. All night, as I fled through the cane-brake, I heard footsteps behind me. I lost them in the cedar swamp--again they haunted my path down the bayou, moving as I moved, resting when I rested--hush! there again!--no; it was only the wind over the canes. The sun is rising. I must launch my dug-out, and put for the bay, and in a few hours I shall be safe from pursuit on board of one of the coasting schooners that run from Galveston to Matagorda. In a little time this darned business will blow over, and I can show again. Hark! there's that noise again! If it was the ghost of that murdered boy haunting me! Well--I didn't mean to kill him, did I? Well, then, what has my all-cowardly heart got to skeer me so for? [_Music._] [_Gets in canoe and rows off,_ L.--Wahnotee _paddles canoe on,_ R.--_gets out and finds trail--paddles off after him,_ L.] Scene III.--_Cedar Swamp._ _Enter_ Scudder _and_ Pete, L. 1. E. _Scud._ Come on, Pete, we shan't reach the house before midday. _Pete._ Nebber mind, sar, we bring good news--it won't spile for de keeping. _Scud._ Ten miles we've had to walk, because some blamed varmin onhitched our dug-out. I left it last night all safe. _Pete._ P'r'aps it floated away itself. _Scud._ No; the hitching line was cut with a knife. _Pete._ Say, Mas'r Scudder, s'pose we go in round by de quarters and raise de darkies, den dey cum long wid us, and we 'proach dat ole house like Gin'ral Jackson when he took London out dar. _Scud._ Hello, Pete, I never heard of that affair. _Pete._ I tell you, sar--hush! _Scud._ What? [_Music._] _Pete._ Was dat?--a cry out dar in de swamp--dar agin! _Scud._ So it is. Something forcing its way through the undergrowth--it comes this way--it's either a bear or a runaway nigger. [_Draws pistol_--M'Closky _rushes on and falls at_ Scudder's _feet._] _Scud._ Stand off--what are ye? _Pete._ Mas'r Clusky. _M'Closky._ Save me--save me! I can go no farther. I heard voices. _Scud._ Who's after you?