"
"Your 'prospect!' Your prospect is about as deceptive as a fata
morgana! What have you been doing, I ask you again, toward realizing
this prospect and earning the money you have already received?"
"Fair and easy, my colonel! Don't let temper get the better of
justice! What have I been doing toward earning the money you have
already paid me? In the first place, I lost time and risked my
liberty watching around Hurricane Hall. Then, when I had identified
the girl and the room she slept in by seeing her at the window, I
put three of my best men in jeopardy to capture her. Then, when she,
the witch, had captured them, I sacrificed all my good looks,
transmogrifying myself into a frightful old field preacher, and went
to the camp-meeting to watch, among other things, for an opportunity
of carrying her off. The sorceress! she gave me no such opportunity.
I succeeded in nothing except in fooling the wiseacres and getting
admitted to the prison of my comrades, whom I furnished with
instruments by which they made their escape. Since that time we have
had to lie low--yes, literally to lie low--to keep out of sight, to
burrow under ground; in a word, to live in this cavern."
"And since which you have abandoned all intention of getting the
girl and earning the five thousand dollars," sneered Le Noir.
"Earning the remaining five thousand, you mean, colonel.
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