now, and a dozen men--I did not count them,--but--"

"Heavens! why did I not think of that? Kendall, you take command of
these men for a moment. Bolty, you and the three files on the left come
with me. Come, Temple,--the back way." And he started at a pace so
rapid that the others could hardly keep him in sight.

After the first repulse of the crowd, Offitt, Bott, and a few more of
the Bread-winners, together with some of the tramps and jail-birds who
had come for plunder, gathered together across the street and agreed
upon a diversion. It was evident, they said, that Farnham had a
considerable police force with him to protect his property; it was
useless to waste any more time there; let the rest stay there and
occupy the police; they could have more fun and more profit in some of
the good houses in the neighborhood. "Yes," one suggested, "Jairus
Belding's widder lives just a step off. Lots o' silver and things. Less
go there."

They slipped away in the confusion of the second rush, and made their
way through the garden to Mrs. Belding's. They tried the door, and,
finding it locked, they tore off the shutters and broke the windows,
and made their way into the drawing-room, where Mrs. Belding and Alice
were sitting.

They had been alarmed by the noise and tumult in front of Farnham's
house, and had locked and bolted their own doors in consequence.
Passing through the kitchen in their rounds, they found Ferguson there
in conversation with the cook. "Why, Fergus!" said the widow: "why are
you not at home? They are having lively times over there, are they
not?"

"Yes," said the gardener; "but they have a plenty of men with arms, and
I thought I'd e'en step over here and hearten up Bessie a bit."

"I'm sure she ought to be very much obliged," responded Mrs. Belding,
dryly, though, to speak the truth, she was not displeased to have a man
in the house, however little she might esteem his valor.

"I have no doubt he sneaked away from the fuss," she said to Alice;
"but I would rather have him in the kitchen than nothing."

Alice assented. "That is what they mean by moral support, I suppose."

She spoke with a smile, but her heart was ill at ease. The man she
loved was, for all she knew, in deadly danger, and she could not show
that she cared at all for him, for fear of showing that she cared too
much.

"I am really anxious about Arthur Farnham," continued Mrs. Belding. "I
hope he will not get himself into any scrap