I may be far from the home that bore me--God prosper them that knows it now!--and I may be a bit behind with me allowance; but never yet was Batty without the arms and the appar'l of a gintleman.

Ned, come with me." Grasping his companion by the arm, Battersleigh stepped outside the house, and strode off with long steps across the prairie.

"Come," he said, as one who commanded alike secrecy and despatch.

Humouring him, Franklin followed for a quarter of a mile.

Then, bending his gaze in the direction of the march, he saw afar, fluttering like a signal of distress in the engulfing sea about, a little whipping flag of white, which was upheld by the gaunt hand of a ragged sage bush.