and perhaps
wondered a little at all the attention lavished on the little Weston
girls.

Rebby saw Captain and Mrs. Horton and Lucia, with Captain Jones, enter
the church. Lucia did not look toward the group of girls seated in the
Westons' pew. The Hortons were no longer trusted by their neighbors, and
after that morning in church they vanished from the community and never
returned.

Rebby's glance now rested on London. How queerly he looked, she thought
wonderingly. He was leaning sideways peering out of an open window. As
Rebecca watched him he rose to his feet with a loud cry, and before any
restraining word could reach him he had leaped through the open window.

In a moment all was confusion. There were loud cries of "Stop him!" Men
rushed from the church, but the English officers, followed by Captain
Jones and the Hortons, had scrambled through the open windows and were
well on their flight toward their boats, which they reached in safety,
although numerous shots were fired after them. The gunboat at once
turned her guns on the town. Shot after shot echoed across the quiet
waters of the harbor, but the range was too long, and no harm was done.

The women and children huddled in the pews of the church, until Parson
Lyon, musket in hand, came up from the shore to tell them that all was
quiet and to return to their homes.

Melvina and Anna left the church together, and Luretta and Rebby
followed with Mrs. Weston. Melvina said good-bye to her friends very
soberly, and clasped her father's hand very closely as they walked
toward home.

"Will the English soldiers shoot down our liberty pole, Father?" she
asked.

"The English captain has sent us word that we are to take it down before
sunset, so that he may be saved that trouble," replied Parson Lyon, his
tone indicating that he considered the English captain's remark as an
amusing utterance, not to be seriously considered.

"But it will not be taken down," said Melvina confidently.

"Indeed it will not. And had that scamp London but held his peace
instead of mistaking Captain Foster's men for an armed enemy marching
upon us, the English would be our prisoners at this moment," declared
her father. "But that is but postponed," he added quietly, "and
to-morrow morning Machias men will give the English captain a lesson."

There were many anxious hearts in the settlement that night, for it had
been determined that in the early dawn of the following morning the men