"Yes, but it is, though. He made out he had the ticket all right and straight, when up comes one Colonel Jabus Harper, and showed the real thing; and the chaps took it up hotly, and they lynched Cregmore that evening."
"What was the penalty?" asked I, with a most imposing indifference.
"They hanged him up at Hall's Court yonder. I ain't sure if he be n't hanging there still."
"And this packet," said I, for the theme was excessively distasteful, "when does she sail?"
"She starts to-night at twelve,--first cabin, two dollars; steerage, one-twenty."
"Thank you," said I, touching my hat with the condescending air one occasionally employs to humiliate an inferior, by its mingled pride and courtesy; and I turned into the street.
"You ain't a-going to Hall's Court, are you?" said Kit, overtaking me.
"Of course not," responded I, indignantly. "Such sights are anything but pleasurable."
"He ain't all right, that 'un," said Gauze-eyes, as old Kit re-entered the office, and I stepped back to listen.
"Well, I don't know," muttered the other; "I 'm a-think-ing it be doubtful, sir. He ha' n't got much clink with him, that's a fact."
"I have half a mind to send Chico up in the boat to-night, just to dodge him a bit."
"Well, ye might do it," yawned the other; "but Chico is such an almighty villain that he'll make him out a rogue or a swindler, at all events."
"Chico is smart, _that_ I do confess," said the other, with a grin.
"And he do look so uncommon like a vagabond, too; Chico, I don't like him."
"He can look like anything he pleases, Chico can. I've seen him pass for a Pawnee, and no one ever disciver it."
"He 's a rank coward, for all that," rejoined the skipper; "and he can put no disguise upon _that_."
The sound of feet, indicative of leaving, made me hasten from the spot, but in a mood far from comfortable. With the fate of my ingenious predecessor in "Hall's Court" before me, and the small possibility of escaping the shrewd investigations of "Chico," I really knew not what course to follow. The more I reflected, however, the less choice was there at my disposal; the bold line, as generally happens, being not a whit more dangerous than the timid path, since, were I to abandon my prize, and not proceed to Houston, the inevitable Chico would only be the more certain to discover me.