t led to strange consequences. He was seen and
followed; and in the dead of the evening, as he was cording with his own
hands a box containing a few valuables, a heavy step mounted the stair,
and there was a rude knock at the door.

Mr. Coventry felt rather uncomfortable, but he said, "Come in."

The door was opened, and there stood Sam Cole.

Coventry received him ill. He looked up from his packing and said, "What
on earth do you want, sir?"

But it was not Cole's business to be offended. "Well, sir," said he,
"I've been looking out for you some time, and I saw you at our place; so
I thought I'd come and tell you a bit o' news."

"What is that?"

"It is about him you know of; begins with a hel."

"Curse him! I don't want to hear about him. I'm leaving the country.
Well, what is it?"

"He is wrong with the trade again."

"What is that to me?--Ah! sit down, Cole, and tell me."

Cole let him know the case, and assured him that, sooner or later, if
threats did not prevail, the Union would go any length.

"Should you be employed?"

"If it was a dangerous job, they'd prefer me."

Mr. Coventry looked at his trunks, and then at Sam Cole. A small voice
whispered "Fly." He stifled that warning voice, and told Cole he would
stay and watch this affair, and Cole was to report to him whenever any
thing fresh occurred. From that hour this gentleman led the life of a
malefactor, dressed like a workman, and never went out except at night.

Messrs. Bolt and Little were rattened again, and never knew it till
morning. This time it was not the bands, but certain axle-nuts and
screws that vanished. The obnoxious machines came to a standstill, and
Bolt fumed and cursed. However, at ten o'clock, he and the foreman were
invited to the Town hall, and there they found the missing gear, and the
culprit, one of the very workmen employed at high wages on the obnoxious
machines.

Ransome had bored a small hole in the ceiling, by means of which this
room was watched from above; the man was observed, followed, and nabbed.
The property found on him was identified and the magistrate offered the
prisoner a jury, which he declined; then the magistrate dealt with
the case summarily, refused to recognize rattening, called the offense
"petty larceny," and gave the man six months' prison.

Now as Ransome, for obvious reasons, concealed the means by which this
man had been detected, a conviction so mysterious shook that sense of
security wh