injury--of having acted a treacherous part against this man--was, in
reality, the ground of their conviction as to his guilt; for it was not
in the nature of the man to be false to his pledged honour. It only
remained that they should prevent his liberation; and the most effectual
way was to act in accordance with the assassin's maxim, "Dead men tell
no tales." Their hatred rose to such a pitch that they began to exhibit
their enmity toward any one that either sympathized, befriended, or was
even familiar with the colonel. Here was the ground of their deadly
animosity toward me. They supposed I was his confidant, and might be an
agent for the execution of his designs.

These murderers,--(I ask no pardon for so harsh an epithet, for they
were such in thought and deed,)--these Grand Masters, who visited the
colonel while I waited upon him, and thus became personally known, have,
ever since that event, assumed a hostile attitude toward me. It is true
they have never attacked me publicly, yet I am confident they have hired
others to do it. From the time I drew the money put in deposit by
Sandford, and bore off that object of curiosity, so carefully concealed
in the bed, until the day I was chased as a mad dog by an infuriated mob
through the streets of New Orleans, and finally made good my escape
through a troop of less hostile cotton snakes, as recorded in my
Gambling Unmasked, I was singled out as an object of open and private
hate by the whole tribe of organized desperadoes. To recover those
papers, no steps were too desperate for the Grand Masters--they having
any amount of money to accomplish their object; and I am now about to
present the reader with another exhibition of their daring and
indefatigable perseverance.

They now came to the conclusion that those papers had been given to the
officers of the bank, and were deposited in the clerk's office of the