n't give no account of itself, Square.
She might ha' been shot as like as not, ef I hadn't gone and took her
pris'ner."

"Let the girl alone, and don't make a laughing stock of yourself. You've
already said the passwords loud enough for any lurker to hear, so that
we'll hae to change them aa because o' your stupeedity. Be serious and
keep your eyes and gun for strange folk, men or women."

Tryphosa fled into the house, whither Tryphena--who, falling into the
same error, had crossed the beat of Timotheus--had already betaken
herself, being driven off the field by the more sensible and merciful
younger Pilgrim. When the Squire had completed his rounds, he returned
to the guard-room, and, telling the story of Sylvanus' folly, which
roused the Captain's ire, showed the necessity for new watchwords and
better instruction of sentries.

"It maun be something the lads and all the rest o' us ken weel, Squire.
What think ye o' Cricket and Golf?" asked Mr. Errol.

"I am afraid that Ben Toner might not know these words," put in the
dominie.

"What?" cried Mr. Perrowne, "do you really mean to say that
this--ah--Towner needs to be towld what cricket is?"

"I fear so," Wilkinson answered; with the effect that no heathen could
have fallen lower in the parson's estimation than did Ben.

"I say good, ship-shape words are Starbud and Port," growled the
Captain.

"In Sout Ameriky it was Constituthion and Libertad," suggested Mr.
Terry.

"Pork and Beans 'll no' do; nor Burdock and Blood Bitters; nor Powder
and Shot," said the Squire, ruminating; "for the one ca's up the tither
ower nayteral like. What say ye, Maister Wilkinson?"

Wilkinson was taken aback by the suddenness of the question, and blurted
out what had been only too much in his thoughts; "Idiot and Boy."

"Capital!" "Well said!" "The very thing!" "Jest suits Sylvanus!" the
various voices responded; and the Squire went out to the sentries to
make the desired change. The lawyer chuckled when he received the new
words, and all the other sentinels repeated to themselves the poetic
terms "Eejut and Boy."

It was just on the stroke of midnight, time to relieve the guards, when
the distant sound of pistol shots in rapid succession fell
simultaneously on the ears of Coristine, Ben and Sylvanus. The lawyer,
stepping hastily to the house, called out the armed inmates, and in
another minute or so Nash came galloping up. "Stay where you are,
Squire, with your sentries; and,