their families, and expressed an earnest hope
that a firm which had shown so much regard for the health and comfort
of the workmen would not persist in a fatal course, on which they had
entered innocently and for want of practical advice.

The partners read this note differently. Bolt saw timidity in it.
Little saw a conviction, and a quiet resolution, that foreboded a stern
contest.

No reply was sent, and the machines went on coining.

Then came a warning to Little, not violent, but short, and rather grim.
Little took it to Bolt, and he treated it with contempt.

Two days afterward the wheel-bands vanished, and the obnoxious machines
stood still.

Little was for going to Grotait, to try and come to terms. Bolt
declined. He bought new bands, and next day the machines went on again.

This pertinacity soon elicited a curious epistle:

"MESSRS. BOLT AND LITTLE,--When the blood is in an impure state,
brimstone and treacle is applied as a mild purgative; our taking the
bands was the mild remedy; but, should the seat of disease not be
reached, we shall take away the treacle, and add to the brimstone a
necessary quantity of saltpetre and charcoal.

"TANTIA TOPEE."

On receipt of this, Little, who had tasted the last-mentioned drugs,
showed such undisguised anxiety that Bolt sent for Ransome. He came
directly, and was closeted with the firm. Bolt handed him the letters,
told him the case, and begged leave to put him a question. "Is the
police worth any thing, or nothing, in this here town?"

"It is worth something, I hope, gentlemen."

"How much, I wonder? Of all the bands that have been stolen, and all the
people that have been blown up, and scorched and vitrioled, and shot
at, and shot, by Union men, did ever you and your bobbies nail a single
malefactor?"

Now Mr. Ransome was a very tall man, with a handsome, dignified head,
a long black beard, and pleasant, dignified manners. When short,
round, vulgar Mr. Bolt addressed him thus, it really was like a terrier
snapping at a Newfoundland dog. Little felt ashamed, and said Mr.
Ransome had been only a few months in office in the place. "Thank you,
Mr. Little," said the chief constable. "Mr Bolt, I'll ask you a favor.
Meet me at a certain place this evening, and let me reply to your
question then and there."

This singular proposal excited some curiosity, and the partners accepted
the rendezvous. Ransome came to the minute, and took the partners into
the mos