sulted me, and I gave you a good deal less than you deserved in the shape
of a whipping for doing it."

"Stop! stop!" stormed the squire. "I will have no quarrel in my house!
Nelson, don't you know it is all wrong to fight on the bridge?"

"I didn't fight. I stopped your son when he refused to pay toll, that was
all."

"I do not believe it."

"Believe it or not, it's true. But I came here for another purpose than to
speak of the quarrel, as you know. I want Percy to make good the twenty
dollars which belonged to me."

"I ain't got your twenty dollars--never had them!" blustered the
aristocratic bully. "If you say I have, I'll pitch you out of the house!"

"Gently, Percy----"

"I don't care, father. It makes me mad to have this upstart speak to me in
this fashion!"

"I know it does, but control yourself, my son. We will find a way to punish
him at another time."

"Can't you have him discharged? He ain't fit to be the tender of the
bridge; he's so insulting!"

"Perhaps," returned the squire, a sudden idea flashing across his mind.

It would assist his schemes wonderfully to have Ralph Nelson discharged.

"You had my twenty-dollar bill, and you paid it over to Mr. Dicks," said
Ralph. "You can't deny it."

At these words Percy staggered back, for the unexpected shot had struck
home.

"Who--who says I paid the bill over to Mr. Dicks?"

"Will Dicks himself. You bought cigarettes, and gave him the bill to
change."

"I gave him a twenty-dollar bill, but it wasn't yours."

"It was, and I can prove it."

"How?"

"By a grease spot in one corner, made by the butter on a sandwich I had."

"Is that all?" sneered Percy.

"I think that's enough."

"Well, hardly. I guess there are a good many bills with grease spots on
them floating around."

For the moment Ralph was nonplussed. The aristocratic bully saw it and went
on:

"You are afraid you are going to lose your place, and you want to get me
and my father in your power, so we can help you keep it. But it won't work,
will it, father?"

"Hardly, my son. We are not to be browbeaten in this style," remarked
Squire Paget, pompously.

"Then you do not intend to make good the amount?" asked Ralph, shortly,
disgusted at the way in which the squire stood up for Percy.

"I shall not give you twenty dollars when I don't owe it to you," said
Percy.

"Will you tell me where you got that twenty-dollar bill?"

"I got it in Chambersburgh last week. A man asked