Our traveller could not withhold the retort.
"Ay, indeed! and in some other respects too, not less important, if I am to judge from your look and bearing.

But you mistake your man, let me tell you.

I am not the person whom you can play your pranks upon with safety, and unless you will be pleased to speak a little more respectfully, our parley will have a shorter life, and a rougher ending, than you fancy." "It would scarcely be polite to contradict so promising a young gentleman as yourself," was the response; "but I am disposed to believe our intimacy likely to lengthen, rather than diminish.

I hate to part over-soon with company that talks so well; particularly in these woods, where, unless such a chance come about as the present, the lungs of the heartiest youth in the land would not be often apt to find the echo they seek, though they cried for it at the uttermost pitch of the pipe." The look and the language of the speaker were alike significant, and the sinister meaning of the last sentence did not escape the notice of him to whom was addressed.

His reply was calm, however, and his mind grew more at ease, more collected, with his growing consciousness of annoyance and danger.