Guy Rivers | Page 8

ignorance of such an institution. I have never
heard even the name before."
"You have not--then really it is high time to begin the work of
enlightenment. You must know, then, that the Pony Club is the
proprietor of everything and everybody, throughout the nation, and in
and about this section. It is the king, without let or limitation of powers,
for sixty miles around. Scarce a man in Georgia but pays in some sort
to its support--and judge and jury alike contribute to its treasuries. Few
dispute its authority, as you will have reason to discover, without
suffering condign and certain punishment; and, unlike the tributaries
and agents of other powers, its servitors, like myself, invested with
jurisdiction over certain parts and interests, sleep not in the
performance of our duties; but, day and night, obey its dictates, and
perform the various, always laborious, and sometimes dangerous
functions which it imposes upon us. It finds us in men, in money, in
horses. It assesses the Cherokees, and they yield a tithe, and sometimes
a greater proportion of their ponies, in obedience to its requisitions.
Hence, indeed, the name of the club. It relieves young travellers, like
yourself, of their small change--their sixpences; and when they happen
to have a good patent lever, such a one as a smart young gentleman like
yourself is very apt to carry about him, it is not scrupulous, but helps
them of that too, merely by way of pas-time."
And the ruffian chuckled in a half-covert manner at his own pun.
"Truly, a well-conceived sort of sovereignty, and doubtless sufficiently
well served, if I may infer from the representative before me. You must
do a large business in this way, most worthy sir."
"Why, that we do, and your remark reminds me that I have quite as
little time to lose as yourself. You now understand, young sir, the toll
you have to pay, and the proprietor who claims it."
"Perfectly--perfectly. You will not suppose me dull again, most candid
keeper of the Pony Turnpike. But have you made up your mind, in
earnest, to relieve me of such trifling encumbrances as those you have
just mentioned?"

"I should be strangely neglectful of the duties of my station, not to
speak of the discourtesy of such a neglect to yourself, were I to do
otherwise; always supposing you burdened with such encumbrances. I
put it to yourself, whether such would not be the effect of my
omission."
"It most certainly would, most frank and candid of all the outlaws.
Your punctiliousness on this point of honor entitles you, in my mind, to
an elevation above and beyond all others of your profession. I admire
the grace of your manner, in the commission of acts which the more
tame and temperate of our kind are apt to look upon as irregular and
unlovely. You, I see, have the true notion of the thing."
The ruffian looked with some doubt upon the youth--inquiringly, as if
to account in some way for the singular coolness, not to say
contemptuous scornfulness, of his replies and manner. There was
something, too, of a searching malignity in his glance, that seemed to
recognise in his survey features which brought into activity a personal
emotion in his own bosom, not at variance, indeed, with the craft he
was pursuing, but fully above and utterly beyond it. Dismissing,
however, the expression, he continued in the manner and tone so tacitly
adopted between the parties.
"I am heartily glad, most travelled young gentleman, that your opinion
so completely coincides with my own, since it assures me I shall not be
compelled, as is sometimes the case in the performance of my duties, to
offer any rudeness to one seemingly so well taught as yourself.
Knowing the relationship between us so fully, you can have no
reasonable objection to conform quietly to all my requisitions, and
yield the toll-keeper his dues."
Our traveller had been long aware, in some degree, of the kind of
relationship between himself and his companion; but, relying on his
defences, and perhaps somewhat too much on his own personal
capacities of defence, and, possibly, something curious to see how far
the love of speech in his assailant might carry him in a dialogue of so
artificial a character, he forbore as yet a resort to violence. He found it
excessively difficult, however, to account for the strange nature of the

transaction so far as it had gone; and the language of the robber seemed
so inconsistent with his pursuit, that, at intervals, he was almost led to
doubt whether the whole was not the clever jest of some country
sportsman, who, in the guise of a levyer of contributions upon the
traveller, would make an acquaintance, such as is frequent in