ioner, upon
whom I hoped to make a favorable impression.

"I have called, sir, to see if I could not make arrangements for the
release of my friend, who was taken into custody to-night, and who is
innocent of any connection with this rebellion."

"What arrangement do you wish to make?" the commissioner asked.

"I will give bonds to a large amount for his appearance at any time that
you may appoint."

"Why, the grocer thinks that he is in a court of law," the colonel said,
with a most insulting sneer.

"No, sir," I replied, "I thought that I was in the presence of
gentlemen."

"None of your insolence here," the bully roared, not liking the smile
which he saw upon the faces of his officers.

"Insolence is but a poor weapon to gain a cause, and a gentleman should
never use it unless to rebuke presumption," I replied.

"We cannot take the bail that you offer," the commissioner said. "Your
partner was arrested for giving vent to treasonable expressions, and
after he was taken into custody, on his person was found a dangerous
weapon, in the shape of a revolver."

"Don't say that the pistol was dangerous to any one but himself," the
colonel cried. "I dare say that if he had attempted to shoot any one, he
would not have known how."

"There is where you do the gentleman an injustice," an officer remarked.

"If you did not think him dangerous, you should have met after the scene
in our store," I said, addressing the colonel, and alluding to the blow
which Fred had struck him.

"I am not accustomed to meet every pauper that presents himself for
battle. I don't wish to place him on a level with myself, and therefore
will wait until he proves himself a gentleman."

"There is where you are mistaken, colonel," said a young gentleman
dressed in the uniform of a captain. "I had the pleasure of meeting both
of these gentlemen at a levee of the governor's, and I know that he
spoke very highly of them, and offered to reward them with lucrative
positions for their services in destroying two or three bands of
bushrangers, who had long been a terror to travellers. It does not
require a patent of nobility to make them gentlemen."

"Why, Captain Fitz, you had better offer to defend the prisoner, you
speak so warmly in his behalf," sneered the colonel.

"I am not a lawyer, sir, although if I am called upon to give my
testimony, I think that I shall say what I please regarding the
slaughter of twenty-two miners, whose only crim