day, he said, there was a sort of panic among the blacks, he didn't know the cause of it, and he wandered away a mile or two from the camp. He said that when these panics take them they are jealous of the presence of strangers. He had a loaded revolver with him.
"There was no sun and he began to think he might lose his way, and so he made up his mind to return to the blacks' camp. Just then he heard a sort of rustle in the air above him, and presently a man, so he said, jumped out of the clouds and caught him by the collar of his coat. He said that this man never touched the ground himself, but tried to lift him off the ground. He drew his revolver and fired.
"Then he said—'Look here, doctor, I'm blest if the fellow didn't turn into bilin' water and then into steam and then into nothin' at all, and while I was wonderin' what in the mischief was the matter with me back he comes again, fust steam, and then bilin' water, and then an ugly tawny-looking beggar, neither nigger nor white man, and makes another grab at me. So I said, Man or devil, have at you again, and I gave him the contents of another barrel, and I'm blest if he didn't go of in a bile again and I took to my heels and ran as I never ran before until I got back to the darkles' camp.' That was his story," said the physician, "and it appears that
