ny more private conversation with old Toby.

"It is nothing more than I expected," thought Marcy, recalling some of
the incidents the negro had described to him. "Union men all over the
South have been the victims of hotheaded secessionists, like those who
compose that Committee of Safety, and now we're going to have the same
sort of work right here in our midst. I don't believe that Bud Goble has
organized a company for the purpose of running Northern sympathizers out
of the State; he said that just to frighten Toby and a few others. But
if he has, I hope he will bring them up here some night and try to take
Dick Graham and me out of the building. I am glad those men had the
courage to defy him to his face, and wish I could have seen Bud about
the time the elder was walking him out of the yard."

It would seem from this that old Toby had told Marcy some things we do
not know, and that Bud Goble's plans were not working as smoothly as he
could have wished. Let us return to Bud and see where he was and what he
had been doing since he took leave of his wife in the morning.

He left home with a light heart and a pocketful of bullets, and took a
short cut through the woods toward Barrington. A few of the bullets were
to be expended upon such unwary small game as might chance to come in
his way, and with the rest, if circumstances seemed to require it,
intended to make a show of being ready for business. He struck a
straight course for the little grocery and dry-goods store, at which he
had for years been an occasional customer, and thought himself fortunate
to find the proprietor in. He was busy dusting the counter, but he was
not alone. There were three or four others present, and when we tell you
that they were Bud Goble's intimate friends, you will know just what
sort of men they were.

"Mornin'," said Bud cheerfully. "Famblies all well? Mine's only jest
tol'able, thank ye. What's the news?"

"There aint none," was the reply from one, to which the others all
assented. "Are there any with you?"

"Well," said Bud slowly, at the same time edging around so that he could
keep an eye on the storekeeper and note the effect his words produced
upon him. "I don't rightly know what you-uns call news. I reckon you-uns
heared that I was workin' for that Committee of Safety, didn't you?"

They had heard something of it in a roundabout way. Was there any money
in the job, and what was he expected to do?

"There's a little money