the clearing, the
four moving abreast with military precision, while Stacy Shunk hurled
at them many admonitions to be cautious. I knew that nothing would
stop James; that while his comrades might scatter like birds, he would
come on to a deadly hand-to-hand conflict, and I pictured the Professor
and him swallowing each other like the two snakes of tradition. I
forgot my own safety, and threw both arms about one of the Professor's
legs and tried to pull him into the house. Penelope, too, lost her
courage when she saw the numbers of the enemy and their bold advance,
and she clung, wailing, to her father's waist. He shook us off, and
for the first time spoke to us sharply, and so sharply that the child
reached her hand to mine and together we slunk into a dark corner.

Of what followed we saw nothing. We heard the voices, nearer and
nearer. Then the men seemed to halt and to address the Professor in
tones of argument. We are a peaceable folk in our valley and little
given to the use of firearms, and I suspect that the constable and his
aids really knew the Professor to be a peaceable man or they would not
have come thus far with such boldness. To come farther they hesitated
until they had made it perfectly clear that they acted in his best
interests. Even Byron Lukens was willing to let "bygones be bygones."

"I'm just doing of my duty, Mr. Blight," he said in a wheedling tone,
"and if you'll come along quiet-like I'll say nothing about it to the
squire."

"You can fix it all up with the squire," I heard Joe Holmes say.
"There's really nothing again you, only you must comply with the law."

Then James spoke--to my astonishment not in a bold demand that the
Professor surrender, but softly, asking him to be careful with the gun.

"Nobody has nothing again you, Professor," he said as gently as he
would have spoken to me, and hearing this I took heart, for with James
in such a temper there seemed no danger of a serious clash.

"No one has nothing against me," the Professor repeated in a tone of
irony. "You only want to drag me through the village before the
squire. Tell the squire to come here to me and explain."

There was a moment of silence. It was so quiet outside that even the
birds seemed to be listening and watching; then came the swish of weeds
trampled under foot.

"Be off, the whole crew of you," cried the man in the doorway, and I
saw the butt of the gun rise to his shoulder.

I wanted to cry