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Show RICII1\HD IIUROIS. 148 promise you, I think, for certain, to giYc yon the whole of your money by to-morrow night. I can get it, for that matter, fl~Olll a friend, but I should h:wc to ride a Lout fifteen or twCJlty md_cs for it, and tltat coultln't be do110 to-day." . "Nor wouhl I wish it, l\fr. 'y cLbcr," was the reply of 'V illiam. "To-morrow will <lnswcr, and tltough we nrc obliged to you for your offer of a bed to-night, yet we lwvc a previous l)romisc to return and spend the night with Colonel Grn~'wn." 'fhc brows of the m:m again Llackcncd, but he spoke 111 cool, deliberate ncccnts, though his language was that of cmnity and dissatisfaction. "Ay, I supposed as much. Colonel Grafton h as a migltty fine house, ancl everything in good fix-he can better accommodate fine gentlemen than a poor man like me. You can do what you like about that, Ur. Carrington-stay with me to-night, or come at mid-day to-morrow-all the same to me- you shall still haYe your money. I'll get it for you, at all hazards, if it's only to get rid of aU further obligation to that man. I've been obligated to ltim too long already, and I 'll wipe out the score to-morrow, or I'm no man myself." On the subject of \ Vcbber's motive for paying his debt, the creditor, of course, had but little to sny. But the pertinacity of the fellow on another topic annoyed me. "Yon speak," said l , "of the g reater wealth and better accommodations of Colonel Grafton, as prompting us to prefer his hospitality to yours. j\fy good sir, why should you do us this wrong1 \Vhat do you sec in either of us to think such things1 V{e arc both poor mm1-poorer, perhaps. than yourself- ! know I am, and believe that such, too, is the case with my com-l'anion." "Do you thouglt 1" said the fellow, coolly interrupting me. I felt that my blood was waxming; he, perhal)S, saw it, for he instantly went on ~- "I don't mean any offence to you, gentlemen-very far from it-but we all very well know what temptations nrc in a rich man's l10usc more than tl10sc in a poor man's. I'm a little jealous, you see, that's all; for I look upon myself as just ns goo(l as Colonel Grafton any day, a11d to fiml people go from my door to look for ltis, is a sort of slight, you sec, tltal I can't MAT WF.BBER. 149 alw:1ys stomach. llut I suppose you arc anotltcr guess sort of 11eopl('; and I should Lc sorry if you found anything mniHs iu what l say. I'm a poor man, it's true, but, by God! ] 'm an honest on(', and come when you will, Mr. Carrington, I'll take up ihat bit of paper almost as soon ns you bring it." \Vc drnuk with the fellow at parting, :mel left ltim on toleraIJly civil terms; but there was something about hint which trouhlctl and mnde me apprehensive and suspicious. His habits of life-as we saw tltcm-but ill compared with the mcasurecl and deliberate manners and tone of voice which he habitually employed. The calmness and dignity of one, conscious of power and practised in authority, were conspicuous in m·cry~ thing lte said and did. Such characteristics never mark the ltabitunlly uncmploycll.. m:m. ' Vhat, then, were his occupations 1 Time will show. Enough, for the -prescut, to know that he was even then mcdit<.lting as dark a. piece of "illany, as the domestic ltistoriall of the frontier was ever cnlled upon to record. |