ge enough
to hold them all; but that if any of their rascally crew dare to
approach the house, there will be lives lost; for I say to you, Mr.
Sheriff, as I have said before and will say again, that James Rodolph
and his committee are a set of infamous scoundrels, who have usurped
such power and authority in troublous times as the King himself would
not dare to claim. Tell them that I am at their defiance, that I do
not recognise their authority, and that I have as much contempt for
them as I have for their dogs."

The old gentleman, for he must have been nearly sixty, looked splendid
in his wrath, as he denounced the Committee of Public Safety. The ring
in his voice told that the ire of the Scot was rising.

For an instant the High Sheriff hesitated, as if he would turn and go,
but then he said:

"Charles Gordon, I spoke to you a moment ago as an officer of the law.
I speak to you now as one who does not wish you an injury. Obey the
order of the committee, and I will see that you have fair speech
before it. Refuse and you will be declared a traitor and an outlaw,
and the edict will go forth through all the province that no man shall
buy of you, that no man shall sell to you, and he that shows you
kindness will become an outlaw like yourself."

Charles Gordon laughed.

"Do you think I care a snap of a finger for their edict? There has not
been a generation of my family that has not been at the Horn at
Edinburgh for high treason. Do you think that I care when my neck has
been on the block for the part I took at Preston Pans and Culloden? Go
frighten the children with their edicts, but not an old Scot who has
seen the claymores flash and led the charge for the King who is over
the sea."

"If you fought against the father, why not against the son?"

"A fair question deserves a fair answer. When my head was on the
block my life was saved by the intercession of the Duchess of Gordon,
but upon conditions, and those conditions are these: That I should
nevermore bear arms against the King, that I should leave the realm of
Scotland, sail across the sea to the province of Maryland, there
remain and never return. So, though I love not the King nor his race,
I will not draw sword against him, for never yet has a Gordon broken
faith with friend or foe. Yet for all that I will not take up arms for
the King's cause unless I am forced to do so by such rascals as
compose your Committee of Public Safety."

"So be it, then, but