wood attracted his attention. The master was evidently there. If he was
alone he would speak to him.

He went to the window, looked in, and in an instant his amiable
abstraction left him. He crept softly to the door, tried it, and then
putting his powerful shoulder against the panel, forced the lock from
its fastenings. He entered the room as Seth Davis, frightened but
furious, lifted himself from before the master's desk which he had just
broken open. He had barely time to conceal something in his pocket and
close the lid again before Uncle Ben approached him.

"What mouut ye be doin' here, Seth Davis?" he asked with the slow
deliberation which in that locality meant mischief.

"And what mouut YOU be doin' here, Mister Ben Dabney?" said Seth,
resuming his effrontery.

"Well," returned Uncle Ben, planting himself in the aisle before his
opponent, "I ain't doin' no sheriff's posse business jest now, but I
reckon to keep my hand in far enuff to purtect other folks' property,"
he added, with a significant glance at the broken lock of the desk.

"Ben Dabney," said Seth in snarling expostulation, "I hain't got no
quar'll with ye!"

"Then hand me over whatever you took just now from teacher's desk and
we'll talk about that afterwards," said Uncle Ben advancing.

"I tell ye I hain't got no quar'll with ye, Uncle Ben," continued Seth,
retreating with a malignant sneer; "and when you talk of protectin'
other folks' property, mebbe ye'd better protect YOUR OWN--or what ye'd
like to call so--instead of quar'llin' with the man that's helpin'
ye. I've got yer the proofs that that sneakin' hound of a Yankee
school-master that Cress McKinstry's hell bent on, and that the old
man and old woman are just chuckin' into her arms, is a lyin',
black-hearted, hypocritical seducer"--

"Stop!" said Uncle Ben in a voice that made the crazy casement rattle.

He strode towards Seth Davis, no longer with his habitual careful,
hesitating step, but with a tread that seemed to shake the whole
school-room. A single dominant clutch of his powerful right hand on the
young man's breast forced him backwards into the vacant chair of the
master. His usually florid face had grown as gray as the twilight;
his menacing form in a moment filled the little room and darkened the
windows. Then in some inexplicable reaction his figure slightly drooped,
he laid one heavy hand tremblingly on the desk, and with the other
affected to wipe his mouth after his