air, and uttering a whoop of anticipated triumph. "I've heerd of the
brute, and, 'tarnal death to me, but I'm his super-superior! Show me tho
critter, and let me fly! Cock-a-doodle-doo!"

"Hurrah for Roaring Ralph Stackpole!" cried the young men, some of whom
proceeded to pat him on the back in compliment to his courage, while
others ran forward to hasten the approach of the expected antagonist.

The appearance of the comer, at a distance, promised an equal match to
tho captain of horse-thieves; but Roland perceived, from the increase of
merriment among the Kentuckians, and especially from his host joining
heartily in it, that there was more in Bloody Nathan than met the eye.
And yet there was enough in his appearance to attract attention, and to
convince the soldier that if Kentucky had shown him, in Captain
Stackpole, one extraordinary specimen of her inhabitants, she had others
to exhibit not a whit less remarkable. It is on the frontiers, indeed,
where adventurers from every corner of the world, and from every circle
of society are thrown together, that we behold the strongest contrasts,
and the strangest varieties, of human character.

Casting his eyes down the road, or street (for it was flanked by the
outer cabins of the settlement, and perhaps deserved the latter name),
which led, among stumps and gullies, from the gate of the stockade to the
bottom of the hill, Forrester beheld a tall man approaching, leading an
old lame white horse, at the heels of which followed a little silky
haired black or brown dog, dragging its tail betwixt its legs, in
compliment to the curs of the Station, which seemed as hospitably
inclined to spread a field of battle for the submissive brute, as their
owners were to make ready another for its master. The first thing that
surprised the soldier in the appearance of the person bearing so