hen he told Nathan of the meeting, the young man cried in his
rasping Yankee voice:

"Good--you're no piker. They said they had scared the filling out of you
at the meeting this morning, and they've bragged they were going to beat
you up this afternoon and kill you to-night. You look pretty husky--but
watch out. They really are greatly excited."

"Well," replied Grant grimly, "I'll be there to-night."

"Nevertheless," returned Nathan, snapping off his words as though he was
cutting them with steel scissors, "Anne and I agreed to-day, that I must
come to Mrs. Williams's and take you to the meeting. They may get ugly
after dark."

Half an hour later on the street, Grant was passing his cousin Anne,
wheeling Daniel Kyle Perry out to take the air. He checked his hurried
step when he caught her smile and said, "Well, Anne, Nate told me that
you wish to send him over to the meeting to-night, as my body guard. I
don't need a body guard, and you keep Nate at home." He smiled down on
his cousin and for a moment all of the emotional storm in his face was
melted by the gentleness of that smile. "Anne," he said--"what a brick
you are!"

She laughed and gave him the full voltage of her joyous eyes and
answered:

"Grant, I'd rather be the widow of a man who would stand by you and what
you are doing, than to be the wife of a man who shrank from it." She
lowered her voice, "And Grant, here's a curious thing: this second Mrs.
Van Dorn called me up on the phone a little bit ago, and said she knew
you and I were cousins and that you and Nate were such friends, but
would I tell Nate to keep you away from any meeting to-night? She said
she couldn't tell me, but she had just learned some perfectly awful
things they were going to do, and she didn't want to see any trouble.
Wasn't that queer?"

Grant shook his head. "Well, what did you say?" he asked.

"Oh, I said that while they were doing such perfectly awful things to
you, your friends wouldn't be making lace doilies! And she rang off.
What do you think of it?" she asked.

"Just throwing a scare into me--under orders," responded the man and
hurried on.

When Grant returned to the hotel at supper time, he found Mr. Brotherton
sitting in a ramshackle rocking chair in the upstairs bedroom, waiting.

"I thought I'd come over and bring a couple of friends," explained Mr.
Brotherton, pointing to the corner, where two shotguns leaned against
the wall.

"Why, man," exclaimed Grant,