"Well take care what you do," he replied. "Remember you are not in your own country. But I shall be round in the direction which I suppose you are taking early to-morrow; and, if there should be any difficulty, may be able to give you assistance, though I think this man's creatures will be completely cowed when they find he is apprehended. Indeed, that Irishman there on the left, is going to turn State's evidence, or I am very much mistaken. I would go with you; but I have a great deal to do to-night. Mind what you do in the Swamp; for people have got in there who have never got out again. Now, gentlemen, we will go forward, if you please. Mr. Thornton, you will have the goodness to cease your communications with that man. I wish him to give his evidence unprompted; and as it is a matter which may affect his own life and the lives of two or three others, he had better be permitted to speak freely. I suppose you are aware this district is under martial law at present." "Then your functions are suspended," said Robert Thornton, sharply. "Excuse me, sir," said the sheriff. "I am acting under due authority; and, at all events, might makes right in the present instance, as you will find." Thus saying, he rode on; and as Robert Thornton passed me, though his tongue said nothing, his look said a great deal. Poor Hercules had told me to go straight east across the Swamp, if I did not find dear Bessy at Mr. William Thornton's house; and the sheriff assured me she was not there: so that I was inclined at first to leave the house, which was now in sight on my right, along a path which seemed long beaten. On second thought, however, I determined to go up to the house and make further inquiries; not that I doubted the sheriff, or had the vanity to attribute to myself superior acumen; but I have often remarked that where one man of intelligence has been unable to obtain information, or get a clue to some secret, a second man, perhaps inferior to himself, will stumble, by accident, upon the very thing that is wanted. In fact, there are two sides to every hedge; one man takes one, and another man takes the other; and where the form is, there the hare will be. At the door of Mr. Thornton's house, stood two or three negro women and one man. Springing from my horse without hesitation, I gave the rein to my companion, and walked up to them in a familiar manner. They seemed a dull, sullen, heavy set of people, indeed the lowest specimens of the negro race I had yet met with. Yet the conduct and the character of the master must have been that which had brutalized them, for they were exactly of the same race as all the rest round about; and, indeed, most of them seemed to have some portion of white blood in their veins. "How long is it since Miss Davenport went?" I said, taking out my watch. "I don't know anything about her," answered the man, in a surly tone.