es not happen to
have a pocketful of money with him?"

"No," replied Mark, rather indignantly; and then, seeing by the curious
smile on Marcy's face that he had spoken too quickly, he added, "I
suppose of course that they do say something about that outrage, but I
can't tell for certain, for I have only had time to read what my papers
say concerning the burning of Beardsley's house and Shelby's."

"Probably they don't refer to the way those four villains conducted
themselves in my mother's house," said Marcy, in a tone of contempt.
"It's altogether too insignificant a thing to have travelled as far as
the city of Newbern."

"It isn't, either!" exclaimed Tom Allison, glaring savagely at Marcy.
"Nothing is too insignificant to attract attention these times. My paper
says--but there it is. Read it for yourself."

"Thank you; I can't stop," answered Marcy, moving toward the office.
"I'll get my own, and read it on the way home."

Contrary to his expectations he did not find a very belligerent crowd in
there. The space between the counters was filled with men, and they were
all talking at once; but they had learned wisdom by past experience, and
however much they might have desired to threaten somebody, they were
careful not to do it. They denounced Yankees and their sympathizers in a
general way, and declared that it was a cowardly piece of business to
burn houses while their owners were absent, but they did not mention any
names. Marcy loitered about until he found that he was not going to hear
anything more than he had heard a score of times before, and then
mounted his horse and set out for home. Dropping the reins upon his
filly's neck and allowing her to choose her own gait, he drew his
Newbern paper from his pocket, and began looking for the article of
which Mark Goodwin had spoken. He could not run amiss of it, for the
black headlines were too prominent. They took up more than half the
column, and after Marcy had run his eye over a few of the leading
ones, he had a very good idea of the article itself. He read:
"A Reign of Terror.--Civil War Inaugurated in a Sovereign State.
--Cowardly Citizens Who Allow a Handful of Traitors to Work their
Sweet Will of Them.--Armed and Masked Incendiaries Abroad at Night."

"There now!" exclaimed Marcy, when he read the last line. "That is as
good proof as I want that the man who wrote this knew the whole story.
Mother and I were the only white persons who saw those men, and n