re you men? Do you war with old men and women? Back with
you! Get back, you dogs! Back, I say!"

CHAPTER V

_A Timely Interference_

A young man in the uniform of a British naval lieutenant leaped in
front of the girl with drawn sword, with which he laid about him
lustily, striking some of the men with the flat of it, threatening
others with the point; and backing his actions by the prompt commands
of one not accustomed to be gainsaid, he soon cleared the space in
front of her.

"How dare you interfere in this matter, my lord?" shouted Johnson,
passionately. "I command this party, and I intend--"

"I know you do," replied the officer, "and that I am only a volunteer
who has chosen to accompany you, worse luck! but I am a gentleman and a
lieutenant in his Britannic majesty's navy, and by heaven! when I see
old men mishandled, and wounded helpless men about to be assassinated,
and young women insulted, I don't care who commands the party, I
interfere. And I don't propose to bandy words with any runagate
American partisan who uses his commission to further private vengeance.
And I swear to you, on my honor, if you do not instantly modify your
treatment of this gentleman, and call off this ragamuffin crew, you
shall be court-martialled, if I have any influence with Dunmore or
Parker or Lord Howe, or whoever is in authority, and I will have the
rest of you hung as high as Haman. This is outrage and robbery and
murder; it is not fighting or making prisoners," continued the young
officer. "You are not fit to be an officer; and you, you curs, you
disgrace the uniform you wear."

Johnson glanced at his men, who stood irresolute before him fiercely
muttering. A rascally mob of the lowest class of people in the colony,
to whom war simply meant opportunity for plunder and rapine, they would
undoubtedly back up their leader, in their present mood, in any attempt
at resistance he might make the young officer. But he hesitated a
moment. Desborough was a lord, high in the confidence of Governor
Dunmore, and a man of great influence; his own position was too
precarious, the game was not worth the candle, and the risk of
opposition was too great.

"Well," he said in sulky acquiescence, "the men meant no special harm,
but have it your own way. Fall back, men! As to what you say to me
personally, you shall answer to me for that at a more fitting time," he
continued doggedly.

"When and where you please," answe