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"Pah! you scarcely need tell ue seems ill-suited to your lips Yet I would have you speak out ers"

"Why not? You could hardly be worse off than you are now"

"Pardieu! you are not so far wrong in your philosophy, friend Still I stick to my text, and if you care to hold further speech with me it will be well to declare yourself I have ever been a bit careful as to my associates"

"It reatly aid you to learn my name, which is plain Geoffrey Benteen, without even a handle of any kind to it, nor repute, save that of an honest hunter along the upper river I say who I am makes small odds, for I come not with application for membership into your social circle, nor with card of introduction from some mutual friend"

His expressive eyebrows uplifted in surprise

"Then, Monsieur, pray relieve my natural curiosity, and tell me why I am thus honored by your presence?"

"To aid your escape fro That is, provided you rouse up froy, and bear your part as becomes a man"

I spoke with heat, for his indifference irritated htest i of the shoulders, while he crossed his legssome fresh tobacco, before he took trouble to reply

"You are evidently of a choleric telish!" he exclaireatly to practise better control over yourself, as such weakness is apt to lead one into just such scrapes as this of ours Sacre! it hath beenalso, otherould I now be a fat Major of the Line instead of a poor devil condemned to the volley, for no worse crime than an over-hot head But seriously, Monsieur, and I arave disposition, it is not so easy to accoine you I have lain here, under tender Spanish care, all these weeks, where, as I do lass of decent wine has found way down my throat, nor have I possessed a bit of poement of my locks--which will account for their present dishevelment--Saint Cecilia! but that hed at me when I did request a coh all this without calculating chances for escape? But, pardieu! what use? A man of sense will not dream such fool dreaeway, a good dozen uard-roo the deck above What use, I say, for did not poor Villere try it, and, before he had covered twenty feet, had three bullets in his brain? Nay, Master Benteen, to endeavor running such a gantlet would only give me my fill of Spanish lead before the hour set, which, they tell me, comes with the sunrise"