success; and with low hearty chucklings of laughter, which could hardly be restrained from bursting into shouts, they dragged the miserable rascal to the log, and, after securely swathing his mouth, plumped him off into the water. Hays, who understood my motive, assisted me with great zeal in adjusting the rope. The rapidity of the stream soon brought him up on the surface of the water, at full length, below the log. There we left him stretched-his hands clenched desperately on the rope, to prevent it tightening to suffocation around his throat -playing to and fro, like a hooked trout on the current, the violence of which would now and then take him clear under suddenly, to bob up again as quickly a rather funny, but not very dangerous predicament, so long as the strength of his arms lasted. The knave fully deserved the punishment, severe as it was, and we left him to the darkness and the infinite agonies of such suspense! All but Hays and myself expected him to drown of course, which would be inevitable so soon as his arms gave out; and the diabolical ingenuity of such a mode of torturing to death gained me great applause, and entirely reinstated me in the confidence of the Colonel, which had been greatly shaken by my officious humanity on a former occasion. I was now pronounced worthy of Texas!! When we were all over the log the Colonel proceeded to explain more fully the plan of operation determined upon, and having assigned each one his post, we commenced approaching the Rancho with the precaution necessary to insure against giving the alarm. The time for making active demonstrations was fixed for midnight; until then we were to occupy separately certain locations which brought every side of the Rancho under the eye of some one, so that Agatone might be foiled in any attempt to escape prematurely. We were then to draw up in two detachments near the great gate on each side, and wait the result of the intended manœuvre. The position assigned me was on the river bank, near some huts outside the picketing. I was rejoiced at this chance, for it gave me the opportunity I desired of creeping back and rescuing Antone. I waited until the men, who were cautiously moving off to their different posts, had all disappeared. I then slid lower down the bank, and was starting off noiselessly under its shadow, when a faint "whist!" sounded near me, suspended my steps. As I turned, a figure, emerging from the loose sand in which it had been covered, sprang up, and showed me the cunning elfish face of the boy John. He came close to me, and peering up into my face with a saucy leer, he whispered, "Ha! ha! ye'r gwine to help him worry the old cat some to night-is ye?" The first thought which crossed my mind on seeing the boy-excited and anxious as 1 felt for the life of Antone, who might give out any minute-was not surprise that he should be in such a place and so concealed, but that he was the very person to be sent to save the poor fellow. His size and dexterity would enable him to reach the log much sooner than I could, without the fear of giving the alarm. So catching him by the arm, I drew him with me to a more shaded place, slipped a piece of money into his hand, and hastily explaining the circumstances, promised him more money if he would go and extricate Antone quickly as possible. He heard me through, and at my urgency bounded off rapidly, saying "Never mind; I'll fix him for ye, boss!" It was not until the creature was out of sight, that I thought of the strange, vicious significancy of the look with which that promise had been made. I had been too greatly flurried to think of or observe anything but the getting him off in time for Antone had now been in the water half an hour, and there was no moment to be lost. I now instantly associated that peculiar look with a fact I had heard the Texan laughing about-namely, that while we were gone to Bexar after the Rangers, Antone had accused John to the Colonel of stealing from his pork barrel-which, it will be remembered, was the truthand that this, together with other causes of exasperation, had gained for John a most brutally severe beating at the hands of the Colonel; recollecting, too, the boy's reputation for malignancy, it at once flashed upon me that he intended to make this the opportunity of a vengeance, the extent of which it would be hard to conjecture. I set off on the moment at my best speed, to counteract, if possible, what might be the consequences of my inconsiderate baste. My progress was slow enough-for to prevent discovery it was necessary to creep close under the bank next to the water's edge-and my hurry and impatience did not improve the rapidity of my progress. Now slipping down the crumbling bank into the water -then wading through the slush and mire until I could drag myself out by a bush, I succeeded at last in reaching a point near the log, where I could safely ascend among the trees on to firm ground. I paused a minute to listen, and could distinguish the sound of heavy splashing and struggles in the water, and a subdued guttural noise like smothered laughter, and now and then a plunge as of some object falling. I stepped noiselessly forward to where I could command a view of the log. The figure of the boy lay crouched on the middle of the bridge; observing him a moment, I saw that he was holding on with his feet and one hand, while with the other he was thrusting a long pole violently down at the hands and head of the wretched Antone, evidently with the hope of breaking his despairing grasp of the rope, or thrusting his head beneath the water. He accompanied every blow with a hissing laugh and some such exclamations as-"It's me! It's John!-he! he! I telled ye so -said I'd fix you-cussed Yaller Belly! he he! Let go will ye, honey! Tell old Red-Head on John agin? I'll spile them blinkers for ye! yah! yah! ha! ha!"-and the little fiend eased himself up on the log to indulge a heartier burst of merriment at his success in having struck one of the eyes of the victim, al ready almost bursting from their sockets, as they were upturned in the spasm of a mute imploring agony. I had in the mean time been approaching him unobserved, and at this moment stood over him, and saw that the pain caused by this last savage expedient had compelled him to quit his hold upon the rope, and in an instant it had tightened upon his throat. Enraged beyond all restraint at the ferocious and unparalleled deviltry of the young murderer, I, without any warning or consideration, struck him a violent blow which knocked him off the log, and the swift stream instantly swept him out of sight. I then laid my gun on the log, and cutting loose the rope, with the end in my hand sprang off into the water. I was a good swimmer, and seizing the body of Antone made for the bank. The force of the current swept me down a long distance, and, encumbered as I was, I should hardly have succeeded in reaching the shore with my burden, but that the favorable accident of my being swept in reach of the twigs of a tree which leaned far over the current, allowed me to drag myself and it out with great difficulty. Loosening the rope, and tearing open his shirt, I found to my relief that the heart still fluttered faintly-and when I tore the bandage from his mouth the water poured forth copiously. The Soul in sceptred majesty of will The ancient Winds Along the gray tops of the billowy Woods And when the Evening walks the western land, Sits on her royal dais, and wears her crown. Then why should I-whose thoughts were shaken down On all the Isles and blossomed for their sons My office yield, and let the general Hymn Her charter-and, that gone, the worlds are dead. For voices shout from all the moving Stars That trouble idle Space-“ ON! ON! STILL ON !” And all the Deeps, whose slumberous eyes were smit Join in the choral summons-" ON! STILL ON!" I will not rest and unmelodious die; But with my full wreath on these thin, white hairs, There they my Brother-Bards-this* with a soul II. But what the burden of that latest song *Southey and † Coleridge. That shall go beating with her silver feet III. Most haply I shall sing some simple words, Or I may wander in my thought afar Where men have built their homes in forests vast, In boyhood's ear, and such as stern men feel A dim-remembered psalm roll softly out And fill their eyes with tears, they know not why: *The Mississippi. Scatters its harvest-wealth of golden suns: And many a green Wood rock the small bright birds On faithless lands, a Memory of God: To catch the odorous dews which Seraphs drink Then shook the Earth and all the hills were moved. A smoke went from his nostrils, and a fire Went from his mouth, a great fire which devoured. He rode upon a Cherub and did fly; He flew upon the white wings of the wind: IV. Then let the sunset fall and flush Life's Dial! The reader will perceive that the passage from "of old" to "waves," is nearly word for word from two of the sublimely simple psalms of "The Monarch Minstrel." Excepting the last line and a half, (a condensation of several verses,) the author found it necessary to introduce but five or six words of his own, for the sake of euphony. |