Barrington to recommend what measures (if any) should be adopted for the
purpose of suppressing any unlawful or riotous outbreak in the town; and
that the following named are hereby appointed a "_Committee of Safety_"
who are respectfully requested to adopt such measures, or to recommend
any measures for adoption by the citizens generally, as may seem to them
proper and necessary for the preservation of good order.

Then followed a long list, containing the names of nearly all the
prominent and wealthy men of the place.

"Humph!" exclaimed Dick Graham, contemptuously. "The fellows who got
this up wasted time and ink to no purpose. There has been no outbreak in
Barrington, and none threatened."

"How does it come that you are so well posted, Dick?" said a friendly
voice at his elbow; and when he faced about Dick's eyes met those of Mr.
Riley, one of the men whose names appeared on the list. "The gentlemen
who framed that resolution did not mean to convey the impression that
there had been any riotous proceedings in and around Barrington," he
continued. "But if they had desired to create an uproar and excite the
fears of the women and children, they might have said that there has
been an outbreak threatened; and it would have been nothing but the
truth. You boys, who are all the while shut up in the academy, can not
be expected to know all that is going on in the country."

"Who has threatened any outbreak?" inquired Dick incredulously. "And
when is it coming off?"

"Look here," said Mr. Riley, lowering his voice. "You remember the John
Brown raid, don't you?"

"Seems to me I have heard something about it. But you are not afraid of
him, are you?"

"I am not joking," replied Mr. Riley earnestly. "Brown laid out a
regular campaign before he started in at Harper's Ferry. He had a map,
and on it had marked several localities in which the negroes were
greatly in excess of the whites. Those towns and villages were to be
destroyed, after the blacks had been coaxed or forced into his army, and
Barrington was one of them."

"Well, what of it?" exclaimed Dick. "He didn't get here, did he?"

"Of course he didn't; but he spread such a spirit of discontent among
the niggers that we have been shaky ever since. And the events of the
last few weeks do not tend to quiet our fears, I assure you."

"When is this insurrection, or whatever you call it, coming off?"

"We don't know when to expect it, but we mean to be ready for it