"
"Bravo, Vernon! You will yet be a rich man. You did it well. The old
fellow swallowed it all, didn't he?"
"As an alderman does turtle-soup. But, Max, where did you slip to from
Vicksburg?"
"To tell you the truth, I was a little afraid of your penitence, and
thought it was not safe to be in the same coach with you; so I gave you
the slip, by going down the river by land a few miles, and then taking
the boat."
"But you didn't know I had reformed then,--ha, ha, ha!"
"Yes. I heard something about it before I left the island,--I overheard
that Jerry Swinger and the mulatto boy speaking of it. But I own,
Vernon, I was too hasty, to judge you unheard."
"Max, who is this De Guy?"
"De Guy," said Maxwell, with feigned astonishment; "don't know him."
"Bah, Max! don't you know that you cannot _wool_ me? By the way, that
was a clumsy trick of yours, sending this De Guy after the girl. When he
had gone, the captain would have chased him, if I had not come and
assured them that the terrible Maxwell could not possibly be concerned
in the affair.
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