ing his heavy hand along the splintered lid. "And you reckon, Seth,
that this yer showin' of him up will break off enythin' betwixt him
and this yer--this yer Miss--Miss McKinstry?" he continued with labored
formality.

"I reckon ef the old fool McKinstry don't shoot him in his tracks
thar'll be white men enough in Injin Springs to ride this high-toned,
pizenous hypocrit on a rail outer the settlement!"

"That's so!" said Uncle Ben musingly, after a thoughtful pause, in
which he still seemed to be more occupied with the broken desk than his
companion's remark. Then he went on cautiously: "And ez this thing orter
be worked mighty fine, Seth, p'r'aps, on the hull, you'd better let me
have them papers."

"What! YOU?" snarled Seth, drawing back with a glance of angry
suspicion; "not if I know it!"

"Seth," said Uncle Ben, resting his elbows on the desk confidentially,
and speaking with painful and heavy deliberation, "when you first
interdoosed this yer subject you elluded to my hevin', so to speak,
rights o' preemption and interference with this young lady, and that
in your opinion, I wasn't purtectin' them rights. It 'pears to me
that, allowin' that to be gospel truth, them ther papers orter be in MY
possession--you hevin' so to speak no rights to purtect, bein' off the
board with this yer young lady, and bein' moved gin'rally by free and
independent cussedness. And ez I sed afore, this sort o' thing havin'
to be worked mighty fine, and them papers manniperlated with judgment, I
reckon, Seth, if you don't objeck, I'll hev--hev--to trouble you."

Seth started to his feet with a rapid glance at the door, but Uncle Ben
had risen again with the same alarming expression of completely filling
the darkened school-room, and of shaking the floor beneath him at the
slightest movement. Already he fancied he saw Uncle Ben's powerful arm
hovering above him ready to descend. It suddenly occurred to him that if
he left the execution of his scheme of exposure and vengeance to Uncle
Ben, the onus of stealing the letters would fall equally upon their
possessor. This advantage seemed more probable than the danger of Uncle
Ben's weakly yielding them up to the master. In the latter case he,
Seth, could still circulate the report of having seen the letters which
Uncle Ben had himself stolen in a fit of jealousy--a hypothesis the more
readily accepted from the latter's familiar knowledge of the schoolhouse
and his presumed ambitious jealou