They finally gave him up, therefore, and Jack might after all, have been left in peace to love Molly and the children as hard as he pleased, and indulge his passion for marksmanship only at the expense of the dumb, wild things around him, but that he was accidently led to make an unfortunate display of it. A few log huts near the center constituted the county town. Here was the grocery, or store, as it was dignified at which alone powder and lead and whisky were to be obtained for many miles around. Jack happened to get out of ammunition and came into this place for a fresh supply. Attracted by the whisky, this was the head quarters of the Regulators, and they were all collected for a grand shooting match, and of course getting drunk fast as possible to steady their nerves. When Jack arrived, he found them gathered in a group under a cluster of trees, several hundred yards from the house. It had been some time since there had been any altercation between any of them and himself; and though he supposed it was all forgotten, yet he felt some little disinclination to joining them, and had resolved not to do it. But as once, and again, and again, that sharp report he loved so well to hear would ring out, followed by the clamors, exclamations and eager grouping of the men around the target to critically examine the result of each shot, his passion for the sport, and curiosity to see how others shot, overcome a half-defined feeling that he was going to do what, for Molly's sake, was an imprudent thing. Hinch, the Regulator Captain, had always been the unrivalled hero of such occasions; for apart from the fact that he was really an admirable shot, he was known to be so fierce, blustering and vindictive a bully, that nobody dared try very hard to beat him, since he would be certain to make a personal affair of it with whoever presumed to be so lucky or so skillful. Now, every body in the county was well aware of this but Jack, and he either was not aware, or did not care for the matter, if he did know it. He knew, though, that Hinch was a famous shot; and noticing that he was preparing to shoot, started to join them, determined to see for himself what they called good shooting. He came swing ing himself carelessly among them, with long, heavy strides, as they were all vociferating in half drunken raptures over the glorious shot just made by Hinch

and he, in his customary manner, was swearing and raving at every one around him, taunting them with their bungling, and defying them to try again. Observing Jack he jerked the target away, and with a loud grating laugh, thrust it insultingly close to his face:-"Hah! Jack Longlegs! They say you can shoot! Look at that! Look close, will you?" pushing it closer to his eyes. "Can you beat it." Jack stepped back and looking deliberately at the board target, said very dryly- Pshaw! the cross aint clean out! I should'nt think I was doin any great things to beat such shootin as that!" "You should'nt, should'nt you?" roared Hinch, furious at Jack's coolness. You'll try it, wont you? I'd like to see you! You must try it! You shall try it! We'll see what sort of a swell you are!" "Oh!" said Jack, altogether unruffled, "If I must, I must! Put up his board thar, men. If you want to see me shoot through every hole you can make, I'll do it for ye!"-and walking back to the "off hand" stand at forty paces, by the time the "markers" had placed the board against the tree, he had wheeled and, slowly swinging his long rifle down from his shoulder to the level, fired as quick as thought. trick of mine!" remarked he, nodding his head toward Hinch who stood near, while he was lowering his gun to the position for reloading" It's a trick I caught from always shooting at varmint's eyes! I never takes 'em any whar else! It's a notion I've got!" At this moment the men standing near the target, who had rushed instantly with great eagerness to see the result, shouted, while one of the "markers" held it aloft over their heads-"He's done it! His ball's the biggest-he's driv it through your hole and made it wider!"

"It's a

Hinch turned pale. Rushing forward he tore the target away from the "marker" and examining it minutely, shouted hoarsely-" It's an accident! he can't do it again! He's a humbug! I'll bet the ears of a buffalo calf against his that he can't do it again! He's afraid to shoot with me again!" "Oh," said Jack, winking aside at the men, "if you mean by that bet, your ears against mine, I take it up! Boys, fix a new board up thar, with a nice cross on the center, and 1 will show the Captain here the clean thing in shootin'!" As he said this he laughed good-humoredly, and the men could not help joining him. Hinch, who

was loading his gun, said nothing, but glared around him with white compressed lips and a chafed look of stifled fury, which made those who knew the man shudder. The men, who were in reality puzzled to tell whether Jack's manner indicated contempt or unconscious simplicity, looked on the progress of this scene, and for the result of the coming trial, with intense curiosity. The new board was now ready, and Hinch stepped forward with great parade to make his shot. After aiming a long time-he fired. The men were around the board in a moment, and instantly proclaimed it a first rate shot. And so it was. The edge of the ball had broken, without touching, the centre. Jack, with the same inexplicable coolness which marked his whole bearing, and without the slightest hesitation, shaking his head as he took his stand, remarked, "Twon't do yet-'taint plumb-'taint the clean thing yet, boys" and throwing out his long rifle again in the same heedless style, fired before one could think. The men sprang forward and announced that the centre was cut out with the most exact and perfect nicety. At the same moment, greatly to the astonishment of every one, Jack walked deliberately off toward the house, without waiting to hear the announcement. "Hah!" shouted Hinch furiously after him, I thought you was a coward! Look at the sneak! come back!" He fairly roared, starting after him, "come back, you can't shoot as well before a muzzle!" Jack walked on without turning his head. Ha, ha!" laughed the Regulator, almost convulsed with fury, "see, the coward is running away to hide under his wife's petticoats!" and long and loud he pealed the harsh taunt after Jack's retreat. The men who at first had been greatly astonished at the rash daring which could thus have ventured to beard the lion in his most formidable mood, and felt the instinctive admiration with which such traits always inspire such breasts, now, on seeing what appeared to be so palpable a "back-out," joined also in the laugh with Hinch. They thought it was cowardice!-A holy sentiment they could not understand, kept watch and ward over the terrible repose of passion. If they only could have seen how that broad massive face was wrenched and grew white with the deep inward spasm of pride struggling for the mastery, as those bitter gibes, so hard to be borne by a free hunter, rung

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upon his ears, they would have taken warning to beware how they farther molested that dangerous slumber of fierce energies. The strong man in reality had never waked. His consciousness was only aware of a single passion, and that controlled and curbed all others. The image of his wife and children rose above the swelling tumult which shook his heavy frame. He saw them deserted and hopeless, with no protection in this wild and lawless region, should he fall in a struggle with such fearful odds. For all these men were the willing slaves, the abject tools, of the ferocious vices of his brutal insulter; and it would have been a contest, not with him alone, but with all of them,. This was stronger than pride with Jack, and he walked on. But he had incurred the hate of Hinch-relentless and unsparing. To be shorn, in so unceremonious a manner, of the very reputation he prided himself most upon, in the presence of his men; to be deprived of so fruitful a theme of self-glorification and boasting, as the reputation of being the foremost marksman the frontier afforded, was too much for the pride of the thick-blooded, malignant savage; and he swore to dog the inoffensive hunter to the death, or out from the county.

From this time poor Jack was in hot water. Shortly after a horse was stolen from a rich and powerful Planter in the neighborhood of the town. The animal was a fine one, and the Planter was greatly enraged at the loss; for he was one of those who paid "black mail" to the Regulators for protection from all such annoyances, immunity from depredations not only by themselves, but from any other quarter. He now called upon them to hunt down the thief, as they were bound under the contract to do, and return the horse. Hinch collected his band with great parade and proceeded to follow the trail, which was readily discoverable near the Planter's house. Late in the evening he returned and announced, that after tracing it with great difficulty through many devious windings, evidently intended to puzzle pursuit, he had at last been led directly to the near vicinity of Jack Long's hut. created much surprise, for no one had suspected Jack of bad habits. But Hinch and his villains bruited far and wide all the circumstances tending to criminate him. After making these things as notorious as possible, attracting as great a

This

degree of public curiosity as he could to the farther investigation, which he professed to be carrying on for the purpose of fixing the hunter's guilt beyond a doubt, the horse was unexpectedly found tied with a lariat to a tree in a dense bottom near Jack's. This seemed to settle the question of his criminality, and there was a general outcry raised around him on all sides. For though the majo. rity of those most clamorous against him were horse-thieves themselves, yet, according to the doctrine of "honor among thieves," there could be no greater or more unpardonable enormity committed than to steal among themselves. "He must be warned to quit the county," was in the mouth of every body, and he was warned. Jack with great simplicity gave them to understand-that he was not ready to go-that when he was he should leave at his leisure-but that if his convenience and theirs did not happen to agree, they might make the most of it. This left no alternative but force; and as no individual felt disposed to take the personal responsibility upon himself of a collision with so unpromising a looking body, Hinch, eager as he was, did not feel that the circumstances were quite strong enough yet, to justify the extremes he intended pushing his vengeance to. Things were not quite ripe, and Jack with all the hurrah and excitement about him, kept even on his way, conquering and to conquer among the hairy tribes, for some weeks longer.

Singular instances of the most vile and wanton spite now began to occur in various parts of the region around. At quick intervals, valuable horses and mules were found shot dead close to the dwellings of the Planters, as it seemed, with out the slightest provocation for such unheard of cruelty, but merely in base revenge for some fancied injury. The rumor soon got out that all these animals might be observed to belong to those persons who had made themselves most active in denouncing Jack Long. Then was noticed the curious fact that all of them were shot through the eye! This was at once associated with the remark of Jack, and his odd feat in firing through a bullet hole, at the shooting match. This seemed to designate him certainly as the guilty man; and as animal after animal continued to fall, every one of them slain in the same way, a perfect blaze of indignation burst out on all sides. The whole county was roused,

and the excitement became universal and intense. In the estimation of every body, hanging, drawing and quartering, burning, lynching, any thing was too good for such a monster. All this was most industriously fomented by Hinch and his myrmidons, until things had reached the proper crisis. Then a county meeting was got up, at which one of the Planters presided, and resolutions were passed that Jack Long, as a bad citizen, should be lynched and driven from the county forthwith. Hinch, of course, dictated a resolution which he was to have the pleasure of carrying into effect. In the mean time, Jack had given himself very little trouble about what was said of him. He had kept himself so entirely apart from every body that he was nearly in perfect ignorance of what was going on. The deer fell before his unerring rifle in as great numbers as ever. The bear rendered up his shaggy coat, the panther his tawney hide, in as frequent trophies to the unique skill of the Hunter.

One evening he had returned laden down as usual with the spoils to his hut. It was a snug little lodge in the wilderness, that home of Jack's. It stood beneath the shade of an island grove, on a hill side, overlooking a thicket which bordered a small stream. No trellised vines ran over it, nor garden flowers nodded with gaudy crests about it. But the gray silvery moss hung its matchless drapery in long fringes from the old wide-armed oak above, and that mild but most pervading odor which the winds are skilful to steal from the breath of leaves, the young grass growing, and the panting languishment of delicate wild flowers filled the whole atmosphere around. These were the perfumes and the sights the coy exacting taste of a bold rover of the solitudes must have. The fresh face of nature and her breathing, sweet as childhood's, could alone satisfy the senses and the soul of one grown thus in love with the freedom of the wilderness. The round, happy face of his wife greeted him with smiles from the door as he approached, while his little boy and girl, nut brown and ruddy, strove with emulous short steps pattering over the thick grass, to meet him first, and clinging to his fingers, prattled and shouted to tell their mother of his coming. He entered, and the precious rifle was carefully deposited on the accustomed "hooks" of buck's horns nailed against the wall. The smoking

meal her tidy care had prepared was dispatched, and the hunting adventures of the day told over. Then he threw himself with his great length along the buffalo robe on the floor, to rest and have a romp with the children. While they were climbing over his large body, and scrambling in riotous joy about him, his wife spoke for some water for her domestic affairs. It was hard for the children to give up their frolic, but Molly's wish was a strong law with Jack. Bounding up, he seized a vessel and started for the stream-the little ones pouting wistfully as they looked after him from the door. It was against Jack's religion to step out side the door without his gun; but this time Molly was in a hurry for the water, there was no time to get the gun, and it was but a short way to the stream. He sprang gaily along the narrow path down the hill and reached the brink. The water had been dipped up and he was returning at a rapid pace through the thicket, when, where it was very high and bordered close upon the path, he suddenly felt something tap him on each shoulder, and his progress impeded strangely. At the same instant a number of men rushed from ambush on each side of him, several of them holding the end of the stout raw-hide lasso, which had been thrown over him. He instantly put forth all his tremendous strength in à convulsive effort to get free; and so powerful was his frame that he would have succeeded but for the sure skill with which the lasso had been thrown that bound him over either arm. As it was, his remarkable vigor, nerved by desperation, was sufficient to drag the six strong men who clung to the rope after him. He heard the voice of Hinch shout eagerly, "Down with him! Drag him down!" At that hateful sound a supernatural activity possessed him, and writhing with a quick spring that shook off those who clung around his limbs, he had almost succeeded in reaching his own door, when a heavy blow from behind felled him. The last objects which met his eye as he sunk down insensible, were the terror-stricken and agonized faces of his wife and two children looking out upon him. When he awoke to consciousness it was to find himself nearly stripped and lashed to the oak which spread above his hut. Hinch, with a look of devilish exultation, stood before him, his wife wailing with piteous lamentations, clung about the monster's knees--the children,

endeavoring to hide their faces in her dress, screamed in affright, while outside the group eight or nine men with guns in their hands stood in a circle. That was a fearful awakening to Jack Long, but it was to a new birth! His eye took in the whole details of the scene at a glance. His enemy grinning in his face with wolfish triumph, the "quirt," with its long heavy lash of knotted raw-hide in his hand. He saw the brute spurn her violently from him with his foot, until she pitched heavily against the wretches around; and he heard them shout with laughter. A sharp, electric agony, like the riving of an oak, shivered along his nerves, passed out at his fingers and his feet, and left him rigid as marble. The murderous thong fell upon his white skin, whelking it in blue ridges, while the dull black drops spouted and rolled off to the ground. But he regarded it no more than did the oak above him, which swayed its moss-wreathed arms and shook its green leaves, as any other day, in the wind; and when his wife, as every harsh slashing sound fell upon her ear, would shriek "mercy!" then shudder-"Oh! mercy! what has he done?" while she covered her eyes with her hands, and cowered with her forehead on the ground, he seemed no more to hear her than did the dead block on the lintel of his door. The man seemed to be dead, all except his eyes, and though Hinch, roused to frantic wrath by his unmoved air, rose on tiptoe and swung the lash with redoubled fury, howling blasphemies at each blow, yet those eyes unmovingly, with a cold search, glanced around into the faces of the men. regard was clinging and keen, as if the faintest lineament were intended to be remembered in hell! The man's look was positively awful, and it dwelt fixedly upon one after another with an icy light that shot freezing an undefined sense of fear into their souls, beastialized as they were. The villains could not stand it, and began to shrink and shuffle behind each other to avoid it, but it was too late! He had them all! Ten men! They were registered! "Kill him! Kill him! He's dangerous!" shouted several. I'll do for him, d-n him!" panted Hinch, as he labored yet more furiously with the lash. We will drop a curtain over this scene. It is enough to say that they left him for dead, lying in his blood, his wife swooning on the ground with the children weeping plaintively over her, and silence

That