miles, and there a suit
will be free, to some extent, from the corruptions they might exercise
in Pennsylvania; and, if successful there, we can more easily attach the
tolls of the canal. I have no more faith in the Legislature of Delaware
than of any other state; kidnappers sit in its responsible seats, and it
licenses lotteries to make prizes of its own honor. But we shall try our
case before a simple jury, which will be flax in the hands of one lawyer
in that state, if we can secure him; but hitherto he has refused my
contractor, and will not take the case."

"Why," said the Judge, "you must mean Clayton, the new senator."

"That is the man," Milburn continued, stopping for strength and breath.
"He is finely educated, I hear, at the colleges and law schools, and
possesses a remarkable power over the agricultural and mixed races of
that small state, whom he thoroughly understands by sympathy and
acquaintance. I heard him once in court, at Georgetown, wither and
confound the confederated kidnapping influences of the whole peninsula,
and, against the will and intention of the jury, prevail upon their
fears and sensibilities to find a bold rogue guilty of stealing free
men; of color--a rogue who was in this room, unless it is a delusion of
my fever, this very day, and with whom I fancied I had been in collision
somewhere."

"You only knocked him down with a brick, after Samson had done it with
his fist, and then the fellow came to me for shelter, afraid you would
pursue him at law, and I suppose he did an errand for my servants to
this abode."

The Judge looked around upon the abode as if he had used the most
respectable word he could possibly apply to it.

"I will compromise with such scoundrels as that one," Milburn spoke,
"only when I am afraid of them. But, to conclude my statement; for
reasons of timidity, or doubts of success, or political
ambition--something I cannot fathom--Mr. Clayton will not hearken to my
debtor, and I have not disclosed my own interest in the suit. He is at
home from Washington, and an appointment has been made with him at his
office in Dover to-morrow. You see I am unable to keep it, and I have no
one else to send, and information reaches me that the canal company,
discovering my money in the contractor's bank account, intends to retain
Clayton forthwith. If you set out this afternoon, you can reach
Laureltown for bedtime. It is at least forty miles thence to Dover, and
you might ride