good thing for him thet yore two gens were
louded with deck shot end thet they sketter sow, else he'd a been a dead
men. He's got a few pellets in the beck of his head, jest eneugh to sten
the scoundrel for a few minutes. Ah, he's hed a creck owver the top of
his head with a cleb, the colonel's werk, very likely."

"Do you want him kept?" enquired Mr. Bigglethorpe, as sentry.

"Oh, dear me, yes; he's Rawdon's chief men. I wouldn't lose him fer a
hendred dollars. Rufus, do you mind blowing his brains out if he
attempts to escaype?"

The good-natured Rufus said he didn't mind watching the prisoner, but he
imagined clubbing would be kinder than blowing out his brains.

"All right!" answered the detective, "all right, so long as you keep him
safely."

So Mr. Bangs went back to the house, followed by Sylvanus, Timotheus and
Bill Richards, the last of whom resumed his post, namely the trunk on
which Pierre Lajeunesse had rested.

When the encampment was reached, Mr. Bangs asked Coristine if he had
been smoking on guard or lighting matches, but he had not. He asked Mr.
Terry the same question, which the old soldier almost took as an insult.
"An' is it to me ye come, axin' av Oi shmoke on guarrd, an' shpind my
toime loightin' matches loike a choild? Oi've sane sarvice, sorr, and
nobody knows betther fwhat his juty is."

"I sincerely beg your pardon, Mr. Terry. Please excuse my enxiety; I
smell fire."

"Don't mintion it, sorr, betune us. Faix, an' it's foire I shmill an'
moighty sthrong, too."

The detective came back to the front of the house, and saw the fire that
had broken forth in a moment, and was flaming in every room of basement
and upper storey, a fire too rapidly advanced to be got under, even had
the means been at hand.

"Quick, Sylvanus, Timotheus, get out the horses and any other live
stock," he cried; but the lawyer had been before him, and the two
Pilgrims and he were already leading the frightened animals past the
house and on to the road, where they turned their heads outward and
drove them along. Forgetting their watch, Mr. Terry and Bangs himself
helped, until every living creature, as they thought, was safely away on
the road to the Lake Settlement. Then, two figures, that the guilty
Sylvanus knew, came out of the door of the boarding house, and the
flames leaped out after them. The woman came up to Coristine, and said:
"I know you; you helped to carry poor Steevy, who is not awake yet. He
said i