^, .^^ii^ IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 4 1.0 1.1 ■i< fSi 12.2 ■SO us Bi u '•25 III '-^ •* < 6" ► % '-y / Hiotographic Sciences Corporalion 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. MS80 (716) 872-4503 1^ :i ::. 1 i^-:- 4i^ CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. M CIHIVI/ICMH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions / institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques €^ ^ ^ Technical and Bibliographic Notas/Notat tachniquaa at bibliographiquas Tha Inatituta haa attamptad to obtain tha beat original copy available for filming. Featurea of thia copy which may be bibliographically unique, which mey elter eny of the imegea in tha reproduction, or which may algnifieantiy change the uauai method of filming, are checked below. D D D D D D Coloured covers/ Couverture de couleur I I Covers damaged^ Couverture endommagte Covers restored end/or laminated/ Couverture restaur^ et/ou pellicula I — I Cover title missing/ Le titre de couverture mcnque I I Coloured maps/ Cartes gAographiques en couleur Coloured Ink (i.e. other than blue or black)/ Encra de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire) I I Coloured plates and/or illustrations/ Planches et/ou illustrations en couleur Bound with other mbterlal/ RelM avac d'autres documents Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion along interior margin/ La re liure serr^e peut causer de I'ombre ou de la distortion le long de la marge intirieure Blank leaves added during restoration may appear within the text. Whenever possible, these have been omitted from filming/ II se peut qua certaines pages blanches ajout^as lors d'une restauration apparaissent dans le texte, mais, lorsque ceia itait possible, ces pages n'ont pas At* fiimtes. Additional comments:/ Commentaires supplimentaires; L'Institut a microfilm^ le meilleur exempiaire qu'il lui a At* possible de se procurer. Les details de cet exempiaire qui sont peut-Atre uniques du point de vue bibliographique. qui peuvent modifier une image reproduite, ou qui peuvent exiger une modification dans la mAthoda normale de filmage sont indiquAs ci-dessous. Th to I I Coloured pages/ E D Pagea de couleur Pages damaged/ Pages endommagtes Pages restored and/or lamir^atad/ Pages restaurAes et/ou peliiculAes Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/ Pages d^colcrtes. tacheties ou piquies Pages detached/ Pages dttachies Showthrous!*'/ Transpar^mce Quality of print varies/ Quality inAgaie de I'impression Includes supplementary material/ Comprend du material supplAmentaire Only edition available/ Seuie Mition disponible Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata slips, tissues, etc., have been refilmed to ensure the best possible image/ Les pages totalement ou partiellement obscurcies par un feuillet d'errata, une peiure. etc., ont 6X6 fiim^es d nouveau de fagon d obtenir la meiileure image possible. Th pa of fill Or be th( sk oti fir sic or Til sh Til wl Ml dll en be rifl ret m( This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ Ce document est film* au taux da reduction indiqu* ci-dessous. 10X 14X 18X 22X 26X 30X u 12X 16X 20X 24X 28X 32X Th« copy filmad h«r« ha* b««n r«produc«cl thanks to tha ganarosity of: Univanity of Windsor L'axamplaira film* fut raproduit grica k la g4n4roait4 da: University of Windwjr Tha imagaa appaaring hara ara tha baat quality posslbia considaring tha condition and iaglbility of tha original copy and in kaaping with tha filming contract spacif icationa. Laa imagaa sulvantaa ont #t4 raproduitas avac la plus grand soin, compta tanu da la condition at da la nattat* da l'axamplaira fiimA, at an conformitA avac laa condltiona du contrat da filmaga. Original copias in printad papar covars ara filmad baglnning with tha front covar and anding on tha last paga with a printad or iliustratad impraa- sion, or tha back covar whan appropriata. All othar original copiaa ara filmad baglnning on tha first paga with a printad or Iliustratad impraa- sion. and anding on tha iaat paga with a printad or iliustratad imprassion. Las axampiairaa originaux dont la couvartura an paplar aat imprim^a sont filmte an commandant par la pramiar plat at an tarminant soit par la darnlAra paga qui comporta una amprainta d'impraaaion ou d'illustration, soit par la sacond plat, aalon hi caa. Tous laa autraa axampiairaa originaux sont fllmte an comman^nt par la pramiira paga qui comporta una amprainta d'impraaaion ou d'illustration at an tarminant par la damlAra paga qui comporta una taiia amprainta. Tha last racordad frama on aach microficha shall contain tha symbol — ^ (moaning "CON- TINUED"), or tha symbol ▼ (moaning "END"), whichavar appiias. \}n daa aymbolas suh/ants apparattra sur la darnlAra imaga da chaqua microficha, salon la caa: la symbols -^^ signifio "A SUIVRE", la aymbola ▼ eignifia "FIN". Maps, piatas, charts, ate, may ba filmad at diffarant raduction ratios. Thosa too iarga to ba antiraly included in ona axposura ara filmad baglnning in tha uppar laft hand cornar, laft to right and top to bottom, as many framas as raquirad. Tha following diagrams iiiustrata tha mathod: Las cartas, planchas, tablaaux, ate, pauvant Atra fllmda h das taux da reduction di\^Arants. Lorsqua la documant ast trop grand pour Atra raproduit an un saui cllchA, 11 ast fiimA A partir da i'angia supArlaur gaucha, da gaucha A droita, at da haut an baa, an pranant la nombra d'imagaa nAcassalra. Las diagrammas suivants illustrant la mAthoda. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 M S\ s\ /i-ci- !:' 1 .1^ that. Still, no matter. Jingo ! haven't I paid that bill yet? This pass is run out. Must get another." Then he smiled and sighed as he looked at a letter in dainty handwriting ; but apparently he could not find the document he sought. ** Oh, well, it doesn't matter. I have it somewhere. He returned me the prepaid envelope, and reminded me that United States stamps were of no use in Canada, which of course I should have remembered. But he didn't pay the postage on his own letter, so that I had to fork out double. Still, I don't mind that, only as an indication of his meanness. He went on to say that, of all the members of our class, you — you f — were the only one who had reflected credit on it. That was the insult. The idea of his making sich a statement, when I had told him I was on the New York Argus! Credit to the class, in- deed ! I wonder if he ever heard of Brown after he was expelled. You know, of course. No ? Well, Brown, by his own exertions, became president of the Alum Bank in New York, wrecked it, and got off to Canada with a clear half-million. Yes, sir. I saw him in Quebec not six months ago. Keeps the finest span and carriage in the city, and lives in a palace. Could buy out old Scragmore a thousand times, and never feel it. Most liberal contributor to the cause of education that there is in Canada. He sayL education made him, and he's not a man to go back on education. And yet Scragmore has the cheek to say that you were the only man in the class who reflects credit on it ! " 1: '!' IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 19 [that ler." Jtter not The professor smiled quietly as the excited jour- nalist took a cooling sip of the cobbler. ** You see, Yates, people's opinions differ. A man like Brown may not be Principal Scragmore's ideal. The principal may be local in his estimate of a suc- cessful man, or of one who reflects credit on his teaching." " Local ? You bet he's local. Too darned local for me. It would do that man good to live in New York for a year. But I'm going to get even with him. I'm going to write him up. I'll give him a column and a half ; see if I don't. I'll get his pho- tograph, and publish a newspaper portrait of him. If that doesn't make him quake, he's a cast-iron man. Say, you haven't a photograph of old Scrag that you can lend me, have you ? " " I have ; but I won't lend it for such a purpose. However, never mind the principal. Tell me j^our plans. I am at your disposal for a couple of weeks, or longer if necessary." " Good boy ! Well, I'll tell you how it is. I want rest and quiet, and the woods, for a week or two. This is how it happened : I have been steadily at the grindstone, except for a while in the hospital ; and that, you will admit, is not much of a vacation. The work interests me, and I am always in the thick of it. Now, it's like this in the newspaper business: Your chief is never the person to suggest that you take a vacation. He is usually short of men and long on things to do, so if you don't worry him into letting you off, he won't lose any sleep over it. He's u I' ill! ^liii 20 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS content to let well enough alone every time. Then there is always somebody who wants to get away on pressing business, — grandmother's funeral, and that sort of thing, — so if a fellow is content to work right along, his chief is quite content to let him. That's the way affairs have gone for years with me. The other week I went over to Washington to interview a senator on the political prospects. I tell you what it is, Stilly, without bragging, there are some big men in the States whom no one but me can inter- view. And yet old Scrag says I'm no credit to his class I Why, last year my political predictions were telegraphed all over this country, and have since appeared in the European press. No credit ! By Jove, I would like to have old Scrag in a twenty- four-foot ring, with thin gloves on, for about ten minuLes! " " I doubt if he would shine under those circum- stances. But never mind him. Ho spoke, for once, without due reflection, and with perhaps an exag- gerated remembrance of your school-day offenses. What happened when you went to Washington ? " " A strange thing happened. When I was admit- ted to the senator's library, I saw another fellow, whom I thought I knew, sitting there. I said to the senator : * I will come when you are alone.* The senator looked up in surprise, and said : * I am alone.* I didn't say anything, but went on with my interview ; and the other fellow took notes all the time. I didn't like this, but said nothing, for the senator is not a man to offend, and it is by not IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 21 offending these fellows that I can get the informa- tion I do. Well, the other fellow came out with me, and as I looked at him I saw that he was my- self. This did not strike me as strange at the time, but I argued with him all the way to New York, and tried to show him that he wasn't treating me fairly. I wrote up the interview, with the other fellow in- terfering all the while, so I compromised, and half the time put in what he suggested, and half the time what I wanted in myself. When the political editor went over the stuff he looked alarmed. I told him frankly just how I had been interfered with, and he looked none the less alarmed when I had finished. He sent at once for a doctor. The doctor meta- phorically took me to pieces, and then said to my chief : ' This man is simply worked to death. He must have a vacation, and a real one, with absolutely nothing to think of, or he is going to collapse, and that with a suddenness which will surprise everybody.* The chief, to my astonishment, consented without a murmur, and even upbraided me for not going away sooner. Then the doctor said to me : * You get some companion — some man with no brains, if pos- sible, who will not discuss politics, who has no opin- ion on anything that any sane man would care to talk about, and who couldn't say a bright thing if he tried for a year. Get such a man to go off to the woods somewhere. Up in Maine or in Canada. As far away from post offices and telegraph offices as possible. And, by the way, don't leave your address at the Argus office.' Thus it happened, Stilly, when 22 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS i< '''\\ he described this man so graphically, I at once thought of you." " I am deeply gratified, I am sure," said the pro- fessor, with the ghost of a smile, ** to be so promptly remembered in such a connection, and if I can be of service to you, I shall be very glad. I take it, then, that you have no intention of stopping in Buffalo ? '* " You bet I haven't. I'm in for the forest prime- val, the murmuring pines and the hemlock, bearded with moss and green in the something or other — I forget the rest. I want to quit lying on paper, and lie on my back instead, on the sward or in the ham- mock. I'm going to avoid all boarding houses or delightful summer resorts, and go in for the quiet of the forest." " There ought to be some nice places along the lake shore." '* No, sir. No lake shore for me. It would re- mind me of the Lake Shore Railroad when it was calm, and of Long Branch when it was rough. NOf sir. The woods, the woods, and the woods. I have hired a tent and a lot of cooking things. I'm going to take that tent over to Canada to-morrow ; and then I propose we engage a man with a team to cart it somewhere into the woods, fifteen or twenty miles away. We shall have to be near a farmhouse, so that we can get fresh butter, milk, and eggs. This, of course, is a disadvantage ; but I shall try to get near some one who has never even heard of New York." '* You may find that somewhat difficult.' »♦ IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 23 *' Oh, I don't know. I have great hopes cf the lack of intelligence in the Canadians." * Often the narrowest," said the professor slowly, " are those who think themselves the most cosmo- politan." " Right you are," cried Yates, skimming lightly over the remark, and seeing nothing applicable to his case in it. " Well, I've laid in about half a ton, more or less, of tobacco, and have bought an empty jug." " An empty one ? " " Yes. Among the few things worth having that the Canadians possess, is good whisky. Besides, the empty jar will save trouble at the custom-house. I don't suppose Canadian rye is as good as the Ken- tucky article, but you and I will have to scrub along on it for a while. And, talking of whisky, just press the button once again." The professor did so, saying : " The doctor made no remark, I suppose, about drinking less or smoking less, did he ? " " In my case ? Well, come to think of it, there was some conversation in that direction. Don't remember at the moment just what it amounted to ; but all physicians have their little fads, you know. It doesn't do to humour them too much. Ah, boy, there you are again. Well the professor wants another drink. Make it a gin fizz this time, and put plenty of ice in it ; but don't neglect the gin on that account. Certainly ; charge it to room 518." CHAPTER III. «* What's all this tackle?" asked the burly and somewhat red-faced customs officer at Fort Erie. " This," said Yates, " is a tent, with the poles and pegs appertaining thereto. These are a number of packages of tobacco, on which I shall doubtless have to pay something into the exchequer of her Majesty. This is a jug used for the holding of liquids. I beg to call your attention to the fact that it is at present empty, which unfortunately prevents me making a libation to the rites of good" fellowship. What my friend has in that valise I don't know, but I suspect a gambling outfit, and would advise you to search him." *' My valise contains books principally, with some articles of wearing apparel," said the professor, opening his grip. The customs officer looked with suspicion on the whole outfit, and evidently did not like the tone of the American. He seemed to be treating the cus- toms department in a light and airy manner, and the officer was too much impressed by the dignity of his position not to resent flippancy. Besides, there were rumours of Fenian invasion in the air, and the IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS n officer resolved that no Fenian should get into the country without paying duty. " Where are you going with this tent ? " "I am sure I don't know. Perhaps you can tell us. I don't know the country about here. Say, Stilly, I'm off up-tow!i to attend to the emptiness in this stone utensil. I've been empty too often my- self not to sympathise with its condition. You wrestle this matter out about the tent. You know the ways of the country, whereas I don't." It was perhaps as well that Yates left negotiations in the hands of his friend. He was quick enough to see that he made no headway with the officer, but rather the opposite. He slung the jar ostentatiously over his shoulder, to the evident discomfort of the professor, and marched up the hill to the nearest tavern, whistling one of the lately popular war tunes. " Now," he said to the barkeeper, placing the jar tenderly on the bar, " fill that up to the nozzle with the best rye you have. Fill it with the old familiar juice, as the late poet Omar saith." The bartender did as he was requested. "Can you disguise a little of that fluid in any way, so that it may be taken internally without a man suspecting what he is swallowing ? " The barkeeper smiled. " How would a cocktail fill the vacancy ? " "I can suggest nothing better," replied Yatea If you are sure you know how to make it." The man did not resent this imputation of igno- « 150484 UNWaSITY OF WINDSOR u y»%s%ik i 96 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS ranee. He merely said, with the air of one who gives an incontrovertible answer : " I am a Kentucky man myself." " Shake ! " cried Yates briefly, as he reached his hand across the bar. " How is it you happen to be here?" " Well, I got into a little trouble in Louisville, and here I am, where I can at least look at God's country." " Hold on," protested Yates. " You're making only one cocktail." " Didn't you say one ? " asked the man, pausing in the compounding. " Bless you, I never saw one cocktail made in my life. You are with me on this." " Just as you say," replied the other, as he pre- ^)ared enough for two. " Now I'll tell you my fix," said Yates confiden- tially. " I've got a tent and some camp things down below at the custom-house shanty, and I want to get them taken into the woods, where I can camp out with a friend. I want a place where we can have absolute rest and quiet. Do you know the country round here? Perhaps you could recom- mend a spot." " Well, for all the time I've been here, I know precious little about the back country. I've been down the road to Niagara Falls, but never out into the wc ods. I suppose you want some place by the lake or the river ? " " No, I don't. I want to get clear back into the forest — if there is a forest." IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS a; u Well, there's a man in to-day from somewhere near Ridgeway, I think. He's got a hay-rack with him, and that would be just the thing to take your tent and poles. Wouldn't be very comfortable travelling for you, but it would be all right for the tent, if it's a big one." " That will suit us exactly. We don't care a cent about the comfort. Roughing it is what we came for. Where will! find him?" " Oh, he'll be along here soon. That's his team tied there on the side street. If he happens to be in good humour, he'll take your things, and as like as not give you a place to camp in his woods. Hiram Bartlett's his name. And, talking of the old Nick himself, here he is. I say, Mr. Bartlett, this gentle- man was wondering if you couldn't tote out some of his belongings. He's going out your way." Bartlett was a somewhat uncouth and wiry speci- men of the Canadian farmer who evidently paid little attention to the subject of dress. He said nothing, but looked in a lowering way at Yates, with something of contempt and suspicion in his glance. Yates had one receipt for making the acquaintance of all mankind. "Come in, Mr. Bartlett," he said cheerily, "and try one of my friend's excellent cocktails." " I take mine straight," growled Bartlett gruffly, although he stepped inside the open door. " I don't want no Yankee mixtures in mine. Plain whisky's good enough for any man, if he is a man. I as IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS don*t take no water, neither. I've got trouble enough." The bartender winked at Yates as he shoved the decanter over to the newcomer. " Right you are," assented Yates cordially. The farmer did not thaw out in the least because of this prompt agreement with him, but sipped his whisky gloomily, as if it were a most disagreeable medicine. " What did you want me to take out ? " he said at last. " A friend and a tent, a jug of whisky and a lot of jolly good tobacco." " How much are you willing to pay?" " Oh, I don't know. I'm always willing to do what's right. How would five dollars strike you?" The farmer scowled and shook his head. " Too much," he said, as Yates was about to offer more. " 'Tain't worth it. Two and a half would be about the right figure. Don'n *'>ut that's too much. I'll think on it going home, and charge you what it's worth. I'll be ready to leave in about an hour, if that suits you. That's my team on the other side of the road. If it's gone when you come back, I'm gone, an' you'll have to get somebody else." With this Bartlett drew his coat-sleeve across his mouth and departed. " That's him exactly," said the barkeeper. " He's the most cantankerous crank in the township. And say, let me give you a pointer. If the subject of 1812 comes up, — the war, you know, — ^you'd bettei ll! He's And ct of >ettei IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 29 admit tha': we got thrashed out of our boots ; that is, if you want to get along with Hiram. He hates Yankees like poison." " And did we get thrashed in 1812 ? " asked Yates, who was more familiar with current topics than with the history of the past. " Blessed if I know. Hiram says we did. I told him once that we got what we wanted from old England, and he nearly hauled me over the bar. So I give you the warning, if you want to get along with him." "Thank you. I'll remember it. So long." This friendly hint from the man in the tavern oflers a key to the solution of the problem of Yates' success on the New York press. He could get news when no other man could. Flippant and shallow as he undoubtedly was, he somehow got into the inner confidences of all sorts of men in a way that made them give him an inkling of anything that was going on for the mere love of him ; and thus Yates often received valuable assistance from his acquaintances which other reporters could not get for money. The New Yorker found the professor sitting on a bench by the custom-house, chatting with the oflficer, and gazing at the rapidly flowing broad blue river in front of them. " I have got a man," said Yates, " who will take us out into the wilderness in about an hour's time. Suppose we explore the town. I expect nobody will run away with the tent till we come back." " I'll look after that," said the officer ; and, thank' li 1 1' 30 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS ing him, the two friends strolled up the street. They were a trifle late in getting back, and when they reached the tavern, they found Bartlett just on the point of driving home. He gruffly consented to take tl^em, if they did not keep him more than five minutes loading up. The tent and its belongings were speedily placed on the hay-rack, and then Bart- lett drove up to the tavern and waited, saying noth- ing, although he had been in such a hurry a few mo- ments before. Yates did not like to ask the cause of the delay ; so the three sat there silently. After a while Yates said as mildly as he could : " Are you waiting for anyone, Mr. Bartlett ? " " Yes," answered the driver in a surly tone, " I'm waiting for you to go in fur that jug. I don't sup- pose you filled it to leave it on the counter." "By Jove!" cried Yates, springing off, "I had forgotten all about it, which shows the extraordinary effect this country has on me already." The pro- fessor frowned, but Yates came out merrily, with the jar in his hand, and Bartlett started his team. They drove out of the village and up a slight hill, going for a mile or two along a straight and some- what sandy road. Then they turned into the Ridge Road, as Bartlett called it, in answer \o a question by the professor, and there was no need to ask why it w?,s so termed. It was a good highway, but rather stony, the road being, in places, on the bare rock. It paid not the slightest attention to Euclid's defini- tion of a straight line, and in this respect was rather a welcome change from the average American road. IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 31 Sometimes they passed along avenues of overbranch- ing trees, which were evidently relics of the forest that once covered all the district. The road followed the ridge, and on each side were frequently to be seen wide vistas of lower lying country. All along the road were comfortable farmhouses ; and it was evident that a prosperous community flourished along the ridge. Bartlett spoke only once, and then to the pro- fessor, w'lo sat next to him. " You a Canadian ? " " Yes." " Where's he from ? " " My friend is from New York," answered the in- nocent professor. " Humph ! " grunted Bartlett, scowling deeper than ever, after which he became silent again. The team was not going very fast, although neither the load nor the road was heavy. Bartlett was mutter- ing a good deal to himself, and now and then brought down his whip savagely on one or the other of the horses; but the moment the unfortunate animals quickened their pace he hauled them in roughly. Nevertheless, they were going quickly enough to be overtaking a young woman who was walking on alone. Although she must have heard them com- ing over the rocky road she did not turn her head, but walked along with the free and springy step of one who is not only accustomed to walking, but who likes it. Bartlett paid no attention to the girl ; the professor was endeavouring to read his thin book as 32 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS well as a man might who is being jolted frequently; but Yates, as soon as he recognised that the pedes- trian was young, pulled up his collar, adjusted his necktie with care, and placed his hat in a somewhat more jaunty and fetching position. ** Are you going to offer that girl a ride ? " he said to Bartlett. "No, I'm not." " I think that is rather uncivil," he added, forget- ting the warning he had had. '* You do, eh ? Well, you offer her a ride. You hired the team." " By Jove ! I will," said Yates, placing his hand on the outside of the rack, and springing lightly to the ground. " Likely thing," growled Bartlett to the professor, " that she's going to ride with the like of him." The professor looked for a moment at Yates, po- litely taking off his hat to the apparently astonished young woman, but he said nothing. " Fur two cents," continued Bartlett, gathering up the reins, " I'd whip up the horses, and let him walk the rest of the way." " From what I know of my friend," answered the professor slov 'y, " I think he would not object in the slightest." Bartlett muttered something to himself, and seemed to change his mind about galloping his horses. Meanwhile, Yates, as has been said, took off his hat with great politeness to the fair pedestrian, and IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 33 and ; his his and as he did so he noticed, with a thrill of admiration, that she was very handsome. Yates always had an eye for the beautiful. " Our conveyance," he began, " is not as comfort- able as it might be, yet I shall be very happy if you will accept its hospitalities." The young woman flashed a brief glance at him from her dark eyes, and for a moment Yates feared that his language had been rather too choice for her rural understanding, but before he could amend his phrase she answered briefly : " Thank you. I prefer to walk." "Well, I don't know that I blame you. May I ask if you have come all the way from the village?" " Yes." " That is a long distance, and you must be very tired." There was no reply; so Yates continued. " At least, I thought it a long distance ; but per- haps that was because I was riding on Bartlett's hay- rack. There is no * downy bed of ease * about his vehicle." As he spoke of the waggon he looked at it, and, striding forward to its side, said in a husi y whisper to the professor : " Say, Stilly, cover up that jug with a flap of the tent." " Cover it up yourself," briefly replied the other ; " It isn t mme. Yates reached across and, in a sort of accidental way, threw the flap of the tent over the too con- 34 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS n spicuous jar. As an excuse for his action he took up his walking-cane and turned toward his new ac- quaintance. He was flattered to see that she was loitering some distance behind the waggon, and he speedily rejoined her. The girl, looking straight ahead, now quickened her pace, and rapidly short- ened the distance between herself and the vehicle. Yates, with the quickness characteristic of him, made up his mind that this was a case of country diffidence, which was best to be met by the bring- ing down of his conversation to the level of his hearer's intelligence. " Have you been marketing? " he asked. "Yes." " Butter and eggs, and that sort of thing ? " " We are farmers," she answered, ** and we sell butter and eggs" — a pause — "and that sort of thing." Yates laughed in his light and cheery way. As he twirled his cane he looked at his pretty com- panion. She was gazing anxiously ahead toward a turn in the road. Her comely face was slightly flushed, doubtless with the exercise of walking. " Now, in my country," continued the New-Yorker, " we idolise our women. Pretty giris don't tramp miles to market with butter and eggs." " Aren't the girls pretty — in your country.? " Yates made a mental note that there was not as much rurality about this girl as he had thought at first. There was a piquancy about the conversation which he liked. That she sh?;ed his enjoyment / IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 35 was doubtful, for a slight line of resentment was noticeable on her smooth brow. " You bet they're pretty ! I think all American girls are pretty. It seems their birthright. When I say American, I mean the whole continent, of course. I'm from the States myself — from New York." He gave an extra twirl to his cane as he said this, and bore himself with that air of conscious superiority which naturally pertains to a citizen of the metropolis. " But over in the States we think the men should do all the work and that the women should — well, spend the money. I must do our ladies the justice to say that they attend strictly to their share of the arrangement." "It should be a delightful country to live in — for the women." " They all say so. We used to have an adage to the effect that America was paradise for women, purgatory for men, and — well, an entirely different sort of place for oxen." There was no doubt that Yates had a way of get- ting along with people. As he looked at his com- panion he was gratified to note just the faintest sus- picion of a smile hovering about her lips. Before she could answer, if she had intended to do so, there was a quick clatter of hoofs on the hard road ahead, and the next instant an elegant buggy, whose slen- der jet-black polished spokes flashed and twinkled in the sunlight, came dashing past the waggon. On seeing the two walking together, the driver hauled up his team with a suddenness that was 36 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS evidently not relished by the spirited dappled span he drove. " Hello, Margaret ! " he cried ; " am I late ? Have you walked in all the way ? " " You are just in good time," answered the girl, without looking toward Yates, who stood aimlessly twirling his cane. The young woman put her foot on the buggy step, and sprang lightly in beside the driver. It needed no second glance to see that he was her brother, not only on account of the family ressemblance between them, but also because he al- lowed her to get into the buggy without offering the slightest assistance, which, indeed, was not needed, and graciously permitted her to place the duster that covered his knees over her own lap as well. The restive team trotted rapidly down the road for a few rods, until they came to a wide place in the highway, and then whirled round seemingly within an ace of upsetting the buggy ; but the young man evidently knew his business, and held them in with a firm hand. The waggon was jogging along where the road was very narrow, and Bartlett kept his team stolidly in the centre of the way. " Hello, there, Bartlett ! ** shouted the young man in the buggy ; " half the road, you know — half the road." " Take it," cried Bartlett over his shoulder. " Come, come, Bartlett, get out of the way, or 1*11 run you down." " You just try it. " Bartlett either had no sense of humour or his re« ^. IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 37 « sentment against his young neighbour smothered it, since otherwise he would have recognised that a heavy waggon was in no danger of being run into by a light and expensive buggy. The young man kept his temper admirably,but he knew just where to touch the elder on the raw. His sister's hand was placed appeal- ingly on his arm. He smiled, and took no notice of her. " Come, now, you move out, or I'll have the law on you." " The law ! " roared Bartlett ; " you just try it on." "Should think you'd had enough of it by this time." " Oh, don't, don't, Henry I " protested the girl in distress. " There ain't no law," yelled Bartlett, " that kin make a man with a load move out fur anything." " You haven't any load, unless it's in that jug." Yates saw with consternation that the jar had been jolted out from under its covering, but the happy consolation came to him that the two in the buggy would believe it belonged to Bartlett. He thought, however, that this dog-in-the-manger policy had gone far enough. He stepped briskly forward, and said to Bartlett : " Better drwe aside a little, and let them pass." " You tend to your own business," cried the thoroughly enraged farmer. " I will," said Yates shortly, striding to the horses' heads. He took them by the bits and, in spite of Bartlett's maledictions and pulling at the lines, he drew them to one side, so that the buggy got by. ss IN TllK MIDST OV ALARMS ^'i ■1 -1 " TImnk you," cried the youn^f man. The \\^\\t Ami i;littci!ii^ cairiagc rapUlly ilisappoaicd up the Kiil^c Ri)ail. HaillcU sat ihoic for ono tnoincnt the picture of balllcil vA^c. *riuM\ ho throw tl»c roins down on the backs of his patient horses, ami ilosceiuieil. " You taivo n\y horses by the head, ilo you, you' j;ood-fur-i\othiu* Vajik? You do, oil ? I like your chook. Touch n»y horses an' n»o a-holdin' the lines 1 Now, you hoar nie ? Your traps comest right off here on the road. You hoar mc ? " " Oh, anyboily within a ndle can hear you." " Kin thoy ? Well, olT comes your pesky tent." " No, it doesn't." *' Don't it, eh? Well, then, you'll lick mc fust; aiu! that's somelhiny: no Yank ever did nor kin do," " I'll do it with pleasure." •• Come, Ci>nve," cried the professor, jjettinj;; down on the road, "this hasgotiefarenoujjh. Koopiiuiet, Yates. Now, Mr. Dartlett, don't mind it; he meant no disrespect." " Don't you it\terfere. You're all right, an* I ain't got nothin' ag'in you. But I'm goin' to thrash this Yank within an inch of his life ; see if I don't. We met 'em in ivSi2, an' we fit 'em an* we licked *em, an* we can do it ag'in. I'll learn ye to take my horses by the head." " Teach," suggested Yates tartalisingly. Before he could properly defend himself, Bartlett sprang at him and grasped him round the waist. Yates was something of a wrestler himself, but hn -I _ IN TIIK MIDST OF ALARMS 39 skill wan of no avail on thiM occaHion. Bartlctt'd HkIU leg became twUtcd around IiIm with a steel-like grip that Hpeedily convinced the younger man he would have to give way or a bone would break. He gave way accordingly, and the next thing he knew he came down on hin back with a thud that seemed to Hhake the univerHc. " There, darn ye 1 " cried t..o triumphant farmer ; " that's 1812 and Queenstown 11 eights for ye. How do you like 'cm ?" YatcH rose to his feet with some deliberation, and slowly took off his coat. •' Now, now, Yates," said the professor soothingly, "let it go at this. You're not hurt, arc you? " he asked anxiously, as he noticed how white the young man was around the lips. " Look here, Renmark ; you're a sensible man. There is a time to interfere and a time not to. This is the time not to. A certain international element seems to have crept into this dispute. Now, you stand aside, like a good fellow, for I don't want to have to thrash both of you." The professor stood aside, for he realised that, when Yates called him by his last name, matters were serious. " Now, old chucklehead, perhaps you would like to try that €igain." " I kin do it a dozen times, if ye ain't satisfied. There ain't no Yank ever raised on pumpkin pie that can stand ag'in that grapevine twist." " Try the grapevine once more." 40 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS Bartlett proceeded more cautiously this time, for there was a look in the young man's face he did not quite like. He took a catch-as-catch-can attitude, and moved stealthily in a semicircle around Yates, who shifted his position constantly, so as to keep facing his foe. At last Bartlett sprang forward, and the next instant found himself sitting on a piece of the rock of the country, with a thousand humming-birds buzzing in his head, while stars and the landscape around joined in a dance together. The blow was sudden, well placed, and from the shoulder. " That," said Yates, standing over him, " is 1776— the Revolution — when, to use your own phrase, we met ye, fit ye, and licked ye. How do you like it ? Now, if my advice is of any use to you, take a broad- er view of history than you have done. Don't con- fine yourself too much to one period. Study up the War of the Revolution a bit." Bartlett made no reply. After sitting there for a while, until the surrounding landscape assumed its normal condition, he arose leisurely, without saying a word. He picked the reins from the backs of the horses and patted the nearest animal gently. Then he mounted to his place and drove off. The pro- fessor had taken his seat beside the driver, but Yates, putting on his coat and picking up his cane, strode along in front, switching off the heads of Canada thistles with his walking-stick as he proceeded. IMS his time, for :e he did not :an attitude, round Yates, 3 as to keep forward, and a piece of the mming-birds le landscape le blow was der. 1, " is 1776— n phrase, we you like it ? ake a broad- Don't con- •tudy up the y there for a assumed its hout saying }acks of the titly. Then The pro- r, but Yates, cane, strode of Canada eeded« THE BLOW WAS SUDDEN." — Page 40 CHAPTER IV Bartlett was silent for a long time, but there was evidently something on his mind, for he com- muned with himself, his mutterings growing louder and louder, until they broke the stillness ; then he struck the horses, pulled them in, and began his soliloquy over again. At last he said abruptly to the professor : " What's this Revolution he talked about ? " ** It was the War of Independence, beginning in 1776." " Never heard of it. Did the Yanks fight us?" " The colonies fought with England." "What colonies?" " The country now called the United States/* " They fit with England, eh ? Which licked ? " " The colonies won their independence." " That means they licked us. I don't believe a word of it. Tears to me I'd 'a' heard of it ; fur I've lived in these parts a long time." " It was a little before your day." " So was 1812; but my father fit in it, an' I never heard him tell of this Revolution. He'd 'a' known, I sh'd think. There's a nigger in the fence some- wheres." ♦I 43 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS f i\ " Well, England was rather busy at the time with the French." "Ah, that was it, was it? I'll bet England never knew the Revolution was a-goin* on till it was over. Old Napoleon couldn't thrash *em, and it don't stand to reason that the Yanks could. I thought there was some skullduggery. Why, it took the Yanks four years to lick themselves. I got a book at home all about Napoleon. He was a tough cuss." The professor did not feel called upon to def nd the character of Napoleon, and so silence once more descended upon them. Bartlett seemed a good deal c'isturbed by the news he had just heard of the Revolution, and he growled to himself, while the horses suffered more than usual from the whip and the hauling back that invariably followed the stroke. Yates was some distance ahead, and swinging along at a great rate, when the horses, apparently of their own accord, turned in at an open gateway and pro- ceeded, in their usual leisurely fashion, toward a large barn, past a comfortable frame house with a wide veranda in front. " This is my place," said Bartlett shortly. " I wish you had told me a few minutes ago," re- plied the professor, springing off, " so that I might have called to my friend." " I'm not frettin' about him," said Bartlett, throw- ing the reins to a young man who came out of the house. Renmark ran to the road and shouted loudly to the distant Yates. Yates apparently did not hear IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 43 him, but sometiiing about the next house attracted the pedestrian's attention, and after standing for a moment and gazing toward the west he looked around and saw the professor beckoning to him. When the two men met, Yates said : " So we have arrived, have we ? I say, Stilly, she lives in the next house. I saw the buggy in the yard." "She! Who?" " Why, that good-looking girl we passed on the road. I'm going to buy our supplies at that house, Stilly, if you have no objections. By the way, how is my old friend 1812 ? " " He doesn't seem to harbour any harsh feelings. In fact, he was more troubled about the Revolution than about the blow you gave him." " News to him, eh ? Well, I'm glad I knocked something into his head." " You certainly did it most unscientifically." " How do you mean — unscientifically ? " " In the delivery of the blow. I never saw a more awkwardly delivered undercut." Yates looked at his friend in astonishment. How should this calm, learned man know anything about undercuts or science in blows ? " Well, you must admit I got there just the same." "Yes, by brute force. A sledge-hammer would have done as well. But you had such an opportunity to do it neatly and deftly, without any display of surplus energry, that I regretted to see such an open- ing thrown away." 44 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS « ill Heavens and earth, Stilly, this is the professor in a new light! What do you teach in Toronto University, anyhow? The noble art of self-de- fense ? '• " Not exactly ; but if you intend to go through Canada in this belligerent manner, I think it would be worth your while to take a few hints from me." "With striking examples, I suppose. By Jove I I will. Stilly." As the two came to the house they found Bartlett sitting in a wooden rocking-chair on the veranda, looking grimly down the road. "What an old tyrant that man must be in his home ! " said Yates. There was no time for the pro- fessor to reply before they came within ear-shot. " The old woman's setting out supper," said the farmer, gruffly, that piece of information being ap- parently as near as he could get toward inviting them to share his hospitality. Yates didn't know whether it was meant for an invitation or not, but he answered shortly : " Thanks, we won't stay." " Speak for yourself, please," snarled Bartlett. " Of course I go ,vith my friend," said Renmark ; " but we are obliged for the invitation." " Please yourselves." " What's that ? " cried a cheery voice from the in- side of the house, as a stout, rosy, and very good- natured-looking woman appeared at the front door. "Won't stay? W/io won't stay? I'd like to see anybody leave my house hungiy when there's a meal IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 45 lark; le in- rood- loor. see I meal on the table ! And, young men, if you can get a better meal anywhere on the Ridge than what I'll give you, why, you're welcome to go there next time, but this meal you'll have here, inside of ten minutes. Hiram, that's your fault. You always in- vite a person to dinner as if you wanted to wrastle with him ! " Hiram gave a guilty start, and looked with some- thing of mute appeal at the two men, but said nothing. " Never mind him," continued Mrs. Bartlett. " You're at my house ; and, whatever my neighbours may say ag'in me, I never heard anybody complain of the lack of good victuals while I was able to do the cooking. Come right in and wash yourselves, for the road between here and the Fort is dusty enough, even if Hiram never was taken up for fast driving. Besides, a wash is refreshing after a hot day." There was no denying the cordiality of this invi- tation, and Yates, whose natural gallantry was at once aroused, responded with the readiness of a courtier. Mrs. Bartlett led the way into the house ; but as Yates passed the farmer the latter cleared his throat with an effort, and, throwing his thumb over his shoulder in the direction his wife had taken, said in a husky whisper : " No call to — to mention the Revolution, you know." " Certainly not," answered Yates, with a wink that took in the situation. " Shall we sample the jug before or after supper ? " 46 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS " Afte •, if it*s all the same to you ; " adding, " out in the barn." Yates nodded, and followed his friend into the house. The young men were shown into a bedroom of more than ordinary size, on the upper floor. Every- thing about the house was of the most dainty and scrupulous cleanliness, and an air of cheerful comfort pervaded the place. Mrs. Bartlett was evidently a housekeeper to be proud of. Two large pitchers of cool, soft water awaited them, and the wash, as had been predicted, was most refreshing. •* I say," cried Yates, "it's rather cheeky to accept a man's hospitality after knocking him down." " It would be for most people, but I think you underestimate your cheek, as you call it." " Bravo, Stilly ! You're blossoming out. That's rapartee, that is. With the accent on the rap, too. Never you mind ; I think old 1812 and I will get on all right after this. It doesn't seem to bother him any, so I don't see why it should worry me. Nice motherly old lady, isn't she ? " "Who? 1812?" " No; Mrs. 1812. I'm sorry I complimented you on your repartee. You'll get conceited. Remember that what in the newspaper man is clever, in a grave professor is rank flippancy. Let's go down." The table was covered with a cloth as white and spotless as good linen can well be. The bread was genuine home-made, a term so often misused in the cities. It was brown as to crust, and flaky and light IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 47 "out the 3m of Lvery- y and )mfort ntly a lers of as had accept It ik you That's p, too. jet on er him Nice edyou lember I grave te and ad was in the id light as to interior. The butter, cool from the rock cellar, was of a refreshing yellow hue. The sight of the well-loaded table was most welcome to the eyes of hungry travellers. There was, as Yates afterward remarked, " abundance, and plenty of it." " Come, father ! " cried Mrs. Bartlett, as the young men appeared ; they heard the rocking-chair creak on the veranda in prompt answer to the sum- mons. " This is my son, gentlemen," said Mrs. Bartlett, indicating the young man who stood in a non-com- mittal attktude near a corner of the room. The pro- fessor recognised him as the person who had taken charge of the horses when his father came home. There was evidently something of his father's demeanour about the young man, who awkwardly and silently responded to the recognition of the strangers. ** And this is my daughter," continued the good woman. " Now, what might your names be ?" " My name is Yates, and this is my friend Profes- sor Renmark of T'ronto," pronouncing the name of the fair city in two syllables, as is, alas ! too often done. The professor bowed, and Yates cordially ex- tended his hand to the young woman. " How do you do. Miss Bartlett?" he said, "I am happy to meet you." The girl smiled very prettily, and said she hoped they had a pleasant trip out from Fort Erie. " Oh, we had," said Yates, looking for a moment at his host, whose eyes were fixed on the table-cloth. !!i If I u 48 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS and who appeared to be quite content to let his wife run the show. " The road's a little rocky in places, but it's very pleasant." " Now, you sit down here, and you here," said Mrs. Bartlett ; " and 1 do hope you have brought good appetites with you." The strangers took, their places, and Yates had a chance to look at the younger member of the fam- ily, which opportunity he did not let slip. It was hard to believe that she was the daughter of so crusty a man as Hiram Bartlett. Her cheeks were rosy, with dimples in them that constantly came and went in her incessant efforts to keep from laughing. Her hair, which hung about her plump shoulders, was a lovely golden brown. Although her dress was of the cheapest material, it was neatly cut and fitted ; and her dainty white apron added that touch of wholesome cleanliness which was so noticeable everywhere in the house. A bit of blue ribbon at her white throat, and a pretty spring flower just be- low it, completed a charming picture, which a more critical and less susceptible man than Yates might have contemplated with pleasure. Miss Bartlett sat smilingly at one end of the table, and her father grimly at the other. The mother sat at the side, apparently loo'dng on that position as one of vantage for commanding the whole field, and keep- ing her husband and hsr daughter both under her eye. The teapot and cups were set before the young woman. She did not pour out the tea at once, but seemed to be waiting instructions from her mother. IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 49 That good lady was gazing with some sternness at her husband, he vainly endeavouring to look at the ceiling or anywhere but at her. He drew his open hand nervously down his face, which was of unusual gravity even for him. Finally he cast an appealing glance at his wife, who sat with her hands foMed on her lap, but her ey'=;s were unrelenting. After a moment's hopeless irresolution Bartlett bent his head over his plate and murmured : •' For what we are about to receive, oh, make us truly thankful. Amen." Mrs. Bartlett echoed the last word, having also bowed her head when she saw surrender in the troubled eyes of her husband. Now, it happened that Yates, who had seen noth- ing of this silent struggle of the eyes, being exceed- ingly hungry, was making every preparation for the energetic beginning of the meal. He had spent most of his life in hotels and New York boarding- houses, so that if he ever knew the adage, " Grace before meat," he had forgotten it. In the midst of his preparations came the devout words, and they came upon him as a stupefying surprise. Although naturally a resourceful man, he was not quick enough this time to cover his confusion. Miss Bartlett's golden head was bowed, but out of the corner of her eye she saw Yates* look of amazed bewilderment, and his sudden halt of surprise. When all heads were raised, the young girl's still remained where it was, while her plump shoulders quivered. Then she covered her fare with her apron, and the silvery 4 50 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS ' I i 4. : I Hi ripple of a laugh came like a smothered musical chime trickling through her fingers. "Why, Kitty!'' cried her mother In astonish- ment, " whatever is the matter with you ? " The girl could no longer restrain her mirth. " You'll have to pour out the tea, mother! " she ex- claimed, as she fled from the room. " For the land's sake ! " cried the astonished mother, rising to take her frivolous daughter's place, ** what ails the child ? I don't see what there is to laugh at." Hiram scowled down the table, and was evidently also of the opinion that there was no occasion for mirth. The professor was -equally in the dark. " I am afraid, Mrs. Bartle^t," said Yates, " that I am the innocent cause of Miss Kitty's mirth. You see, madam — it's a pathetic thing to say, but really I have had no home life. Although I attend church regularly, of course," he added with jaunty men- dacity, " I must confess that I haven't heard grace at meals for years and years, and — well, I wasn't just prepared for it. I have no doubt I made an exhi- bition of myself, which your daughter was quick to see." ** It wasn't very polite," said Mrs. Bartlett with some asperity. " I know that," pleaded Yates, with contrition, "but I assure you it was unintentional on my part." " Bless the man ! " cried his hostess. " I don't mean you. I mean Kitty. But that girl never IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 51 don't never could keep her face straight. She always favoured me more than her father." This statement was not difficult to believe, for Hiram at that moment looked as if he had never smiled in his life. He sat silent throughout the meal, but Mrs. Bartlett talked quite enough for two. " Well, for my part," she said. " I don't know what farming is coming to ! Henry Howard and Margaret drove past here this afternoon as proud as Punch in their new covered buggy. Things is very different from what they was when I was a girl. Then a farmer's daughter had to work. Now Mar- garet's took her diploma at the ladies' college, and Arthur he's begun at the university, and Henry's sporting round in a new buggy. They have a piano there, with the organ moved out into the back room." " The whole Howard lot's a stuck-up set," mut- tered the farmer. But Mrs. Bartlett wouldn't have that. Any de- traction that was necessary she felt competent to supply, without help from the nominal head of the house. " No, I don't go so far as to say that. Neither would you, Hiram, if you hadn't lost your lawsuit about the I'le fence; and served you right, too, for it wouldn't have been begun if I had been at home at the time. Not but what Margaret's a good house- keeper, for she wouldn't be her mother's daughter if she wasn't that; but it does seem to me a queer Sa IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS ill I t way to raise farmers* children, and I only hope they can keep it up. There were no pianos nor French and German in my young days." " You ought to hear her play ! My lands ! " cried young Bartlett, who spoke for the first time. His admiration for her accomplishment evidently went beyond his powers of expression. Bartlett himself did not relish the turn the con- versation had taken, and he looked somewhat un- easily at the two strangers. The professor's coun- tenance v/a . open and frank, and he was listening with respectful interest to Mrs. Bartlett's talk. Yates bent over his plate with flushed face, and con- fined himself strictly to the business in hand. " I am glad," said the professor innocently to Yates, " that you made the young lady's acquaint- ance. I must ask you for an introduction." For once in his life Yates had nothing to say, but he looked at his friend with an expression that was not kindly. The latter, in answer to Mrs. Bartlett's inquiries, told how they had passed Miss Howard on the road, and how Yates, with his usual kindness of heart, had offered the young woman the hospital- ities of the hay-rack. Two persons at the table were much relieved when the talk turned to the tent. It was young Hiram who brought about this boon. He was interested in the tent, and he wanted to know. Two things seemed to bother the boy: First, he was anxious to learn what diabolical cause had been at work to induce two apparently sane men to give up the comforts of home and live in IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 53 this exposed manner, if they were not compelled to do so. Second, he desired to find out why people who had the privilege of living in large cities came of their own accord into the uninteresting country, anyhow. Even when explanations were offered, the problem seemed still beyond him. After the meal they all adjourned to the veranda, where the air was cool and the view extensive. Mrs. Bartlett would not hear of the young men pitching the tent that night. "Goodness knows, you will have enough of it, with the rain and the mosquitoes. We have plenty of room here, and you will have one comfortable night on the Ridge, at any rate. Then in the morning you can find a place in the woods to suit you, and my boy will take an axe and cut stakes for you, and help to put up your precious tent. Only remember that when it rains you are to come to the house, or you will catch your deaths with cold and rheumatism. It will be very nice till the novelty wears off ; then you are quite welcome to the front rooms upstairs, and Hiram can take the tent back to Erie the first time he goes to town." Mrs. Bartlett had a way of taking things for granted. It never seemed to occur to her that any of her rulings might be questioned. H iram sat gazing silently at the road, as if all this was no affair of his. Yates had refused a chair, and sat on the edge of the veranda, with his back against one of the pillars, in such a position that he might, without turning his head, look through the open doorway into the 54 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS room where Miss Bartlett was busily but silently clearing away the tea>things. The young man caught fleeting glimpses of her as she moved airily about her work. He drew a cigar from his case, cut off the end with his knife, and lit a match on the sole of his boot, doing this with an easy auto- matic familiarity that reqilred no attention on his part ; all of which aroused the respectful envy of young Hiram, who sat on a wooden chair, leaning forward, eagerly watching the man from New York. " Have a cigar? " said Yates, offering the case to young Hiram. " No, no ; thank you," gasped the boy, aghast at the reckless audacity of the proposal. "What's that?" cried Mrs. Bartlett. Although she was talking volubly to the professor, her maternal vigilance never even nodded, much less slept. "A cigar? Not likely! I'll say this for my husband and my boy : that, whatever else they may have done^ they have never smoked nor touched a drop of liquor since I've known them, and, please God, they never will." " Oh, I guess it wouldn't hurt them," said Yates, with a lack of tact that was not habitual. He fell several degrees in the estimation of his hostess. "Hurt *em?" cried Mrs. Bartlett indignantly. " I guess it won't get a chance to." She turned to the professor, who was a good listener — respectful and deferential, with little to say for himself. She rocked gently to and fro as she talked. Her husband sat unbendingly silent, in a sphinx- IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS ss like attitude that gave no outward indication of his mental uneasiness. He was thinking gloomily that it would be just his luck to meet Mrs. Bartlett un- expectedly in the streets of Fort Erie on one of those rare occasions when he was enjoying the pleasures of sin for a season. He had the most pes- simistic forebodings of what the future might have in store for him. Sometimes, when neighbours or customers " treated ** him in the village, and he felt he had taken all the whisky that cloves would con- ceal, he took a five-cent cigar instead of a drink. He did not particularly like the smoking of it, but there was a certain devil-may-care recklessness in going down the street with a lighted cigar in his teeth, which had all the more fascination for him because of its manifest danger. He felt at these times that he was going the pace, and that It is well our women do not know of all the wickedness there is in this world. He did not fear that any neighbour might tell his wife, for there were depths to which no person could convince Mrs. Bartlett he would descend. But he thought with horror of some com- bination of circumstances that might bring his wife to town unknown to him on a day when he indulged. He pictured, with a shudder, meeting her unexpect- edly on the uncertain plank sidewalk of Fort Erie, he smoking a cigar. When this nightmare presented itself to him, he resolved never to touch a cigar again ; but he well knew that the best resolutions fade away if a man is excited with two or three glasses of liquor. 56 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 11 . 1^1 I 1 4! I . ! When Mrs. Bartlett resumed conversation with the professor, Yates looked up at young Hiram and winked. The boy flushed with pleasure under the comprehensiveness of that wink. It included him in the attractive halo of crime that enveloped the fascinating personality of the man from New York. It seemed to say : " That's all right, but we are men of the world. We know." Young Hiram's devotion to the Goddess Nicotine had never reached the altitude of a cigar. He had surreptitiously smoked a pipe in a secluded corner behind the barn in days when his father was away. He feared both his father and his mother, and so was in an even more embarrassing situation than old Hiram himself. He had worked gradually up to tobacco by smoking cigarettes of cane made from abandoned hoop-skirts. Crinoline was fashionable, even in the country, in those days, and ribs of cane were used before the • metallic distenders of dresses came in. One hoop-skirt, whose usefulness as an article of adornment was gone, would furnish de- light and smoking material for a company of boys for a month. The cane smoke made the tongue rather raw, but the wickedness was undeniable. Yates' wink seemed to recognise young Hiram as a comrade worthy to offer incense at the shrine, and the boy was a firm friend of Yates from the moment the eyelid of the latter drooped. The tea-things having been cleared away, Yates got no more glimpses of the girl through the open 11 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS ST door. He rose from his lowly seat and strolled toward the gate, with his hands In his pockets. He remembered that he had forgotten something, and cudgelled his brains trying to make out what it was. He gazed down the road at the house of the How- ards, which naturally brought to his recollection his meeting with the young girl on the road. There was a pang of discomfiture in this thought when he remembered the accomplishments attributed to her by Mrs. Bartlett. He recalled his condescend" ing tone to her, and recollected his anxiety about the jar. The jar! That was what he had forgotten. He flashed a glance at old Hiram, and noted that the farmer was looking at him with something like reproach in his eyes. Yates moved his head almost imperceptibly toward the barn, and the farmer's eyes dropped to the floor of the veranda. The young man nonchalantly strolled past the end of the house. " I guess I'll go to look after the horses," said the farmer, rising. " The horses are all right, father. I saw to them," put in his son, but the old man frowned him down, and slouched around the corner of the house. Mrs. Bartlett was too busy talking to the professor to notice. So good a listener did not fall to her lot every day, " Here's looking at you," said Yates, strolling into the barn, taking a telescopic metal cup from his pocket, and clinking it into receptive shape by a jerk of the hand. He offered the now elongated cup to 58 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 11 '^i a 'i! Hiram, who declined any such modern improve> ment. " Help yourself in that thing. The jug's good enough for me.** " Three fingers ** of the liquid gurgled out into the patented vessel, and the farmer took the jar, after a furtive look over his shoulder. " Well, here's luck." The newspaper man tossed off the potion with the facility of long experience, shutting up the dish with his thumb and finger, as if it were a metallic opera hat. The farmer drank silently from the jar itself. Then he smote in the cork with his open palm. " Better bury it in the wheat bin,** he said mo- rosely. " The boy might find it if you put it among the oats — feedin' the horses, ye know.** "Mighty good place," assented Yates, as the golden grain flowed in a wave over the submerged jar. " I say, old man, you know the spot ; you've been here before." Bartlett's lowering countenance indicated resent- ment at the imputation, but he neither afHrmed nor denied. Yates strolled out of the barn, while the farmer went through a small doorway that led to the stable. A moment later he heard Hiram calling loudly to his son to bring the pails and water the horses. " Evidently preparing an alibi** said Yates, smil ing to himself, as he sauntered toward the gate. r CHAPTER V "WHAT*Sup? what's Up?" cried Yates drowsily next morning, as a prolonged hammering at his door awakened him. " Well, youWe not, anyhow." He recognised the voice of young Hiram. " I say, breakfast's ready. The professor has been up an hour." "All right; I'll be down shortly," said Yates, yawning, adding to himself : " Hang the professor ! " The sun was streaming in through the east window, but Yates never before remembered seeing it such a short distance above the horizon in the morning. He pulled his watch from the pocket of his vest, hanging on the bedpost. It was not yet seven o'clock. He placed it to his ear, thinking it had stopped, but found himself mistaken. " What an unearthly hour," he said, unable to check the yawns. Yates* years on a morning news- paper had made seven o'clock something like mid- night to him. He had been unable to sleep until after two o'clock, his usual time of turning in, and now this rude awakening seemed thoughtless cruelty. However, he dressed, and yawned himself down- stairs. 59 6o IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS They were all seated at breakfast when Yates en- tered the apartment, which was at once dining-room and parlour. "Waiting for you," said young Hiram humor- ously, that being one of a set of jokes which suited various occasions. Yates took his place near Miss Kitty, who looked as fresh and radiant as a spirit of the morning. " I hope I haven't kept you waiting long," he said. " No fear," cried Mrs. Bartlett. " If breakfast's a minute later than seven o'clock, we soon hear of it from the men-folks. They get precious hungry by that time." " By that time ? " echoed Yates. " Then do they get up before seven ? " " Laws ! what a farmer you would make, Mr. Yates ! " exclaimed Mrs. Bartlett, laughing. ' ^''' -»" everything's done about the house and barn ; a. fed, cows milked — everything. There never wa better motto made than the one you learned whei. you were a boy, and like as not have forgotten all about : " • Early to bed and early to rise Makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.* Fm sorry you don't believe in it, Mr. Yates." " Oh, that's all right," said Yates with some lofti- ness ; " but I'd like to see a man get out a morning paper on such a basis. I'm healthy enough, quite as wealthy as the professor here, and everyone will IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 6i Mr. admit that I'm wiser than he is ; yet I never go to bed until after two o'clock, and rarely wake before noon." Kitty laughed at this, and young Hiram looked admiringly at the New Yorker, wishing he was as clever. " For the land's sake ! " cried Mrs. Bartlett, with true feminine profanity. " What do you do up so late as that ? " " Writing, writing," said Yates airily ; " articles that make dynasties tremble next morning, and which call forth apologies or libel suits afterward, as the case may be." Young Hiram had no patience with one's profes- sion as a topic of conversation. The tent and its future position was the burning question with him. He mumbled something about Yates having slept late in order to avoid the hearing of the words of thankfulness at the beginning of the meal. What his parents caught of this remark should have shown them how evil communications corrupt good man- ners ; for, big as he was, the boy had never before ventured even to hint at ridicule on such a subject. He was darkly frowned upon by his silent father, and sharply reprimanded by his voluble mother. Kitty apparently thought it rather funny, and would like to have laughed. As it was, she con- tented herself with a sly glance at Yates, who, in- credible as it may seem, actually blushed at young Hiram's allusion to the confusing incident of the day before. M^il 62 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS ,. 11 ? I 1 i! ill \V ;4! I I The professor, who was a kind-hearted man, drew a herring across the scent. " Mr. Bartlett has been good enough," said he, changing the s'lbjcct, " to say we may camp in the woods at the back of the farm. I have been out there this morning, and it certainly is a lovely spot." "We're awfully obliged, Mr. Bartlett," said Yates. " Of course Renmark went out there merely to show the difference between the ant and the butterfly. You'll find out what a humbug he is by and by, Mrs. Bartlett. He looks honest ; but you wait." " I know just the spot for the tent," cried young Hiram — " down in the hollow by the creek. Then you won't need to haul water." " Yes, and catch their deaths of fever and ague," said Mrs. Bartlett. Malaria had not then been in- vented. " Take my advice, and put your tent — if you will put it up at all — on the highest ground you can find. Hauling water won't hurt you." " I agree with you, Mrs. Bartlett. It shall be so. My friend uses no water — you ought to have seen his bill at the Buffalo hotel. I have it somewhere, and am going to pin it up on the outside of the tent as a warning to the youth of this neighborhood — and what water I need I can easily carry up from the creek." The professor did not defend himself, and Mrs. Bartlett evidently took a large discount from all that Yates said. She was a shrewd woman. After breakfast the men went out to the barn. The IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 63 be so. horses were hitched to the waggon, which still con- taineu the tent and fittings. Young Hiram threw an axe and a spade among the canvas folds, mounted to his place, and drove up the lane leading to the forest, followed by Yates and Renmark on foot, leav- ing the farmer in his barnyard with a cheery good- by, which he did not see fit to return. First, a field of wheat ; next, an expanse of waving hay that soon would be ready for the scythe ; then, a pasture field, in which some young horses galloped to the fence, gazing for a moment at the harnessed horsei, whinnying sympathetically, off the next with flying heels wildly flung in the air, rejoicing in their own contrast of liberty, standing at the farther cor- ner and snorting defiance to all the world ; last, the cool shade of the woods into which the lane ran, losing its identity as a waggon road in diverging cow- paths. Young Hiram knew the locality well, and drove direct to an ideal place for camping. Yates was enchanted- He included all that section of the country in a sweeping wave of his hand, and burst forth : I " ' This is the spot, the centre of the grove : There stands the oak, the monarch of the wood. In such a place as this, at such an hour, We'll raise a tent to ward off sun and shower.' Mrs. ill that Shakespeare improved." ** I think you are mistaken," said Renmark. " Not a bit of it. Couldn't be a better camping ground." «4 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS « :j iiiifV \i I" I , ■ Si ! Yes ; I know that. I selected it two hours ago. But you were wrong in your quotation. It is not by Shakespeare and yourself, as you seem to think." " IsTi t ? Some other fellow, eh ? Well, if Shake. h ; 'iitl^vBH, I am. Do you know, Renny, I calculate that I PC for line, I've written about ten times as much as Sh ... speare. Do the literati recognise that fact ? Not a bit of it. This is an ungrateful world, Stilly." " It is, Dick. Now, what are you going to do toward putting up the tent ? " " Everything, my boy, everything. I know more about putting up tents than you do about science, or whatever you teach. Now, Hiram, my boy, you cut me some stakes about two feet long — stout ones. Here, professor, throw off that coat and w^/^'f/ man- ner, and grasp this spade. I want some trenches dug." Yates certainly made good his words. He under- stood the putting up of tents, his experience in the army being not yet remote. Young Hiram gazed with growing admiration at Yates* deftness and evi- dent knowledge of what he was about, while his contempt for the professor's futile struggle with a spade entangled in tree roots was difficult to repress. " Better give me that spade," he said at length ; but there was an element of stubbornness in Ren- mark's character. He struggled on. At last the work was completed, stakes driven, ropes tightened, trenches dug. il, I IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 65 ars ago. is not think." : Shake, alculate imes as ise that 1 world, y to do w more science, oy, you ut ones, f/ man- renches under- in the gazed id evi- lile his with :ult to ength ; Ren- in ven. Yates danced, and gave the war whoop of the country. " Thus the canvas tent has risen, All the slanting stakes are driven, Stakes of oak and stakes of beechwood t Mops his brow, the tired professor { Grins with satisfaction, Hiram ; Dances wildly, the repoi ier— Calls aloud for gin and water. Longfellow, old man, Longfellow. Be^ ytx a dollar on it I " And the frivolous Yates pokcid *^^ j profes- sor in the ribs. " Richard," said the latter, " I cai - 1 iiid only a certain amount of this sort of thing. I don't wish to call any man a fool, but you act remarkably like one." " Don't be mealy-mouthed, Renny ; call a spade a spade. By George! young Hiram has gone off and forgotten his And the axe, too ! Perhaps they're left for us. He's a good fellow, is young Hiram. A fool? Of course I'm a fool. That's what I came for, and that's what I'm going to be for the next two weeks. ' A fool — a fool, I met a fool i' the forest * —just the spot for him. Who could be wise here after years of brick and mortar ? " Where are your eyes, Renny," he cried, " that you don't grow wild when you look around you ? See the dappled sunlight filtering through the leaves ; listen to the murmur of the wind in the branches ; hear the trickle of the brook down there ; notice the smooth bark of the beech and the rugged covering of the oak ; smell the wholesome woodland scents. S i 66 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS Renmaik, you ha^^e no soul, or you could not be so unmoved. It is like paradise. It is Say, Rcnny, by Jove, I've forgotten that jug at the ba -n ! " " It will be left there." " Will it ? Oh, well, if you say so." " I do say so. I looked around for it this morn- ing to smash it, but couldn't find it." " Why didn't you ask old Bartlett ? " ** I did ; but he didn't know where it was." Yates threw himself down on the moss and laughed, flinging his arms and legs about with the joy of living. *' Say, Culture, have you got any old disreputable clothes with you ? Well, then, go into the tent and put them on ; then come out and lie on your back and look up at the leaves. You're a good fellow, Renny, but decent clothes spoil you. You won't know yourself when you get ancient duds on your back. Old clothes mean freedom, liberty, all that our ancestors fought for. When you come out, we'll settle who's to cook and who to wash dishes. I've settled it already in my own mind, but I am not so selfish ss to refuse to discuss the matter with you." When the professor came out of the tent, Yates roared. Renmark himself smiled ; he knew the effect would appeal to Yates. ** By Jove ! old man, I ought to have included a mirror in the outfit. The look of learned respecta- bility, set off with the garments of a disreputable tramp, makes a combination that is simply killing. IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 6; Now Well, you can't spoil that suit, anyhow, sprawl." " I'm very comfortable standing up, thank you." " Get down on your back. You hear me ? " " Put me there." " You mean it ? " asked Yates, sitting up. " Certainly." " Say, Renny, beware. I don't want to hurt you," " I'll forgive you for once." " On your head be it." " On my back, you mean." " That's not bad, Renny," cried Yates, springing to his feet. " Now, it will hurt. You have fair warning. I have spoken." The young men took sparring attitudes. Yates tried to do it gently at first, but, finding he could not touch his opponent, struck out more earnestly, again giving a friendly warning. This went on in- effectually for some time, when the professor, with a quick movement, swung around his foot with the airy grace of a dancing master, and caught Yates just behind the knee, at the same time giving him a slight tap on the breast. Yates was instantly on his back. " Oh, I say, Renny, that wasn't fair. That was a kick." " No, it wasn't. It is merely a little French touch. I learned it in Paris. They do kick there, you know ; and it is good to know how to use your feet as well as your fists if you are set on by three, as I was one night in the Latin Quarter." 68 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS Yates sat up. ** Look here, Renmark; when were you in Paris?** " Several times." Yates gazed at him for a few moments, then said : " Renny, you improve on acquaintance. I never saw a Bool-var in my life. You must teach me that little kick." "With pleasure,** said Renmark, sitting down, while the other sprawled at full length. " Teaching is my business, and I shall be glad to exercise any talents I may have in that line. In endeavouring to instruct a New York man thefiist step is to convince him that he doesn't know everything. That is the difficult point. Afterward everything is easy." " Mr. Stillson Renmark, you are pleased to be severe. Know that you are forgiven. This de« licious sylvan retreat does not lend itself to acri- monious dispute, or, in plain English, quarrelling. Let dogs delight, if they want to ; I refuse to be goaded by your querulous nature into giving any- thing but the soft answer. Now to business. Noth- ing is so conducive to friendship, when two people are camping out, as a definition of the duties of each at the beginning. Do you follow me?** " Perfectly. What do you propose ? ** " I propose that you do the cooking and I wash the dishes. We will forage for food alternate days." " Very well. I agree to that." Richard Yates sat suddenly upright, looking at his friend with reproach in his eyes. " See here, Ren- mark ; are you resolved to force on an international IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS (9 complication the very first day ? That's no fair show to give a man." " What isn't ? " " Why, agreeing with him. There are depths of meanness in your character, Renny, that I never suspected. You know that people who camp out always object to the part assigned them by their fellow-campers. I counted on that. I'll do any- thing but wash dishes.'* "Then why didn't you say so?" " Because any sane man would have said ' no * when I suggested cooking, merely because I suggested it. There is no diplomacy about you, Renmark. A man doesn't know where to find you when you act like that. When you refused to do the cooking, I would have said :* Very well, then, I'll do it,' and every- thing would have been lovely ; but now " Yates lay down again in disgust. There are mo- ments in life when language fails a man. " Then it's settled that you do the cooking and I wash the dishes ? " said the professor. ** Settled ? Oh, yes, if you say so ; but all the pleasure of getting one's own way by the use of one's brains is gone. I hate to be agreed with in that i^jectionably civil manner." •* Well, that point being arranged, who begins the foraging — you or I ? " " Both, Herr Professor, both. I propose to go to the house of the Howards, and I need an excuse for the first visit ; therefore I shall forage to a limited extent. I go ostensibly for bread. As I may not IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS i i i 1 i n get any, you perhaps should bring son\e from what* ever farmhouse you choose as the scene of your operations. Bread is always handy in the camp, fresh or stale. When in doubt, buy more bread. You can never go wrong, and the bread won't." " What else should I get ? Milk, I suppose ? " " Certainly ; eggs, butter — anything. Mrs. Bart- lett will give you hints on what to get that will be more valuable than mine." ** Have you all the cooking utensils you need?" " I think so. The villain from whom I hired the outfit said it was complete. Doubtless he lied ; but we'll manage, I think." "Very well. If you wait until I change my clothes, rU go with you as far as the road." ** My dear fellow, be advised, and don't change. You'll get everything twenty per cent, cheaper in that rig-out. Besides, you are so much more pic- turesque. Your costume may save us from starva- tion if we run short of cash. You can get enough for both of us as a professional tramp. Oh, well, if you insist, I'll wait. Good advice is thrown away on a man like you." CHAPTER VI my Margaret Howard stood at the kitchen table kneading dough. The room was called the kitchen, which it was not, except in winter. The stove was moved out in spring to a lean-to, easily reached through the open door leading to the kitchen veranda. When the stove went out or came in, it marked the approach or the departure of summer. It was the heavy pendulum whose swing this way or that indi- cated the two great changes of the year. No job about the farm was so much disliked by the farmer and his boys as the semi-annual removal of the stove. Soot came down, stovepipes gratingly grudged to go together again; the stove was heavy and cumber- some, and many a pain in a rural back dated from the journey of the stove from outhouse to kitchen. The kitchen itself was a one-storey building, which projected back from the two-storey farmhouse, giving the whole a T-shape. There was a veranda on each side of the kitchen, as well as one along the front of the house itself. Margaret's sleeves were turned back nearly to her elbows, showing a pair of white and shapely arms. 7« V \i ; ff ■ ! |:|i! «i T9 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS Now and then she deftly dusted the kneading board with flour to prevent the dough sticking, and as she pressed her open palms into the smooth, white, spongy mass, the table groaned protestingly. She cut the roll with a knife into lumps that were patted into shape, and placed side by side, like hillocks of snow, in the sheet-iron pan. At this moment there was a rap at the open kitchen door, and Margaret turned round, startled, for visitors were rare at that hour of the day ; be- sides, neighbours seldom made such a concesnon to formality as to knock. The young girl flushed as she recognised the man who had spoken to her the day before. He stood smiling in the doorway with his hat in his hand. She uttered no word of greet- ing or welcome, but stood looking at him, with her hand on the floury table. " Good-morning, Miss Howard,** said Yates blithely ; " may I come in ? I have been knocking f c r some time fruitlessly at the front door, so I took the liberty of coming round.** " I did not hear you knock," answered Margaret. She neglected to invite him in, but he took the per- mission for granted and entered, seating himself as one who had come to stay. " You must excuse me for going on with my work,** she added ; " bread at this stage will not wait." "Certainly, certainly. Please do not let me inter- rupt you. I have made my own bread for years, but not in that way. I am glad that you are making bread, for I have come to see if I can buy some." IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS n *t Really? Perhaps I can sell you some butter and eggs as well." Yates laughed in that joyous, free-hearted manner of his, which had much to do with his getting on in the world. It was difficult to remain long angry with so buoyant a nature. " Ah, Miss Howard, I see you haven't forgiven me for that remark. You surely could not have thought I meant it. I really intended it for a joke, but I am willing to admit, now that I look back on it, that the joke was rather poor ; but, then, most of my jokes are somewhat shop- worn." " I am afraid I lack a sense of humo'T," " All women do," said Yates with easy confidence. "At least all I've ever met." Yates was sitting in a wooden chair, which he now placed at the end of the table, tilting it back until his shoulders rested against the wall. His feet were upon the rung, and he waved his hat back and forth, fanning himself, for it was warm. In this position he could look up at the face of the pretty girl before him, whose smooth brow was touched with just the slightest indication of a faint frown. She did not even glance at the self-confident young man, but kept her eyes fixed resolutely on her work. In the silence the table creaked as Margaret kneaded the dough. Yates felt an unaccustomed sensation of embarrassment creeping over him, and realised that he would have to re-erect the conversation on a new basis. It was manifestly absurd that a resource- 74 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS ful New Yorker, who had conversed unabashed with presidents, senators, generals, and other great people of a great nation, should be put out of countenance by the unaccountable coldness of a country girl in the wilds of Canada. ** I have not had an opportunity of properly intro- ducing myself," he said at last, when the creaking of the table, slight as it was, became insupportable. ** My name is Richard Yates, and I come from New York. I am camping out \n this neighborh^ to relieve, as it were, a mental strain — the rcsu'r of years of literary work." Yates knew from long experience that ll;^ quick- est and surest road to a wom.an's confide/ :e was through her sympathy. " Mental strain ' ;. truck him as a good phrase, indicating midnight oil and the hollow eye o\ th -^ devoted student. "Is your work m^ir.,?.!,. then? ' asked Margaret incredulously, lashingf fori e fir^t time, a, dark -eyed look at him. "Yes," Yates laughed uneasily. He had mani- festly missed fire. " I notice by your tone that you evidently think my equipment meagre. You should not judge by appearances, Miss Howard. Most of us are better than we seem, pessimists to the contrary notwithstanding. Well, as I was say- ing, the camping company consists of two partners. We are so different in every respect that we are the best of friends. My partner is Mr. Stillson Ren- mark, profe sor of something or other in University College, Toronto." IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 7S For the first time Margaret exhibited some inter- est in the conversation. " Professor Renmark ? I have heard of him." " Dear me ! I had no idea the fame of the pro- fessor had penetrated beyond the precincts of the university — if a university has precincts. He told me it had all the modern improvements, but I suspected at the time that was merely Rermy's brag." The frown on the girl's brow deepened, and Yates was quick to see that he had lost ground again, if indeed he had ever gained any, which he began to doubt. She evidently did not relish his glib tdVir. about the university. He was just about to jc»y something deferential about that institution, for he was not a man who would speak disrespectfully of the equator if he thought he might curry favour with his auditor by doing otherwise, when it occurred to him that Miss Howard's interest was centred in the man, and not in the university. " In this world, Miss Howard," he co nued, " true merit rarely finds its reward; at le l, the reward shows some reluctance in making elf visible in time for a man to enjoy it. Professor Renmark is a man so worthy that I was rather a. j nished to learn that you knew of him. I am glad for his sake that it is so, for no man more thoroughly deserves fame than he." " I know nothing of him," said Margaret, "except what my brother has written. Mj* brother is a student at the university." 76 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS > 7ell," he cried at length, with something like desperation, " let us abandon this animated discus- sion on the subject of education, and take up the more practical topic of bread. Would you believe, Miss Howard, that I am an expert in bread- making ? " " I think you said already that you made your bread." " Ah, yes, but I meant then that I made it by the sweat of my good lead pencil. Still, I have made bread in my time, and I believe that some of those who subsisted upon it are alive to-day. The en- durance of the human frame is somethincr marvel IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS n a lous, when you come to think of it. I did the baking in a lumber camp one winter. Used to dump the contents of a sack of flour into a trough made out of a log, pour in a pail or two of melted snow, and mix with a hoe after the manner of a bricklayer's assistant making mortar. There was nothing small or mean about my bread-making. I was in the wholesale trade." " I pity the unfortunate lumbermen." " Your sympathy is entirely misplaced, Miss Howard. You ought to pity me for having to pander to such appetites as those men brought in from the woods with them. They never complained of the quality of the bread, although there was oc- casionally some grumbling about the quantity. I have fed sheaves to a threshing machine and logs to a sawmill, but their voracity was nothing to that of a big lumberman just in from felling trees. Enough, and plenty of it, is what he v^ants. No * tabbledote ' for him. He wants it all at once, and he wants it right away. If there is any washing necessary, he is content to do it after the meal. I know nothing, except a morning paper, that has such an appetite for miscellaneous stuff as the man of the woods." The girl made no remark, but Yates could see that she was interested in his talk in spite of her- self. The bread was now in the pans, and she had drawn out the table to the middle of the floor ; the baking-board had disappeared, and the surface of the table was cleaned. With a light, deft motion of her two hands she had whisked over its surface the 78 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 1 i spotlessly white cloth, which flowed in waves ovef the table and finally settled calmly in its place like the placid face of a pond in the moonlight. Yates realised that the way to success lay in keeping the conversation in his own hands and not depending on any respono*-. In this way a man may best dis- play the store of knowledge he possesses, to the ad- miration and bewilderment of his audience, even though his store consists merely of samples like the outfit of a commercial traveller ; yet a commercial traveller who knows his business can so arrange his samples on the table of his room in a hotel that they give the onlooker an idea of the vastness and wealth of the warehouses from which they are drawn. " Bread," said Yates with the serious air of a very learned man, " is a most interesting subject. It is a historical subject — it is a biblical subject. As an article of food it is mentioned oftener in the Bible than any other. It is used in parable and to point a nioral. * Ye must not live on bread alone.* " From the suspicion of a twinkle in the eye of his listener he feared he had not quoted correctly. He knew he was not now among that portion of his samples with which he was most familiar, so he hastened back to the historical aspect of his subject. Few people could skate over thinner ice than Rich- ard Yates, but his natural shrewdness always caused him to return to more solid footing. " Now, in this country bread has gone through three distinct stages, and although I am a strong believer in progress, yet, in the case of our most im- IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 79 ough trong >t im- *■'. portant article of food, I hold that the bread of to- day is inferior to the bread our mothers used to make, or perhaps, I should say, our grandmothers. This is, unfortunately, rapidly becoming the age of machinery — and machinery, while it may be quicker, is certainly not so thorough as old-fashioned hand work. There is a new writer in England named Ruskin who is very bitter against machinery. He would like to see it abolished — at least, so he says. I will send for one of his books, and show it to you, if you will let me." "You, in New York, surely do not call the author of * Modern Painters ' and * The Seven Lamps of Architecture ' a new man. My father has one of his books which must be nearly twenty years old." This was the longest speech Margaret had made to him, and, as he said afterward to the professor in describing its effects, it took him right off his feet. He admitted to the professor, but not to the girl, that he had never read a word of Ruskin in his life. The allusion he had made to him he had heard someone else use, and he had worked it into an article before now with telling effect. "As Mr. Ruskin says " looked well in a newspaper column, giving an air of erudition and research to it. Mr. Yates, however, was not at the present moment pre- pared to enter into a discussion on either the age or the merits of the English writer. " Ah, well," he said, " technically speaking, of course, Ruskin is not a new man. What I meant was that he is looked on — ah — in New York as — ( ■ I ... < '! I It I 80 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS that is — you know — as comparatively new — com- paratively new. But, as I was saying about bread, the old log-house era of bread, as I might call it, produced the most delicious loaf ever made in this country. It was the salt-rising kind, and was baked in a round, flat-bottomed iron kettle. Did you ever see the baking kettle of other days ? " " I think Mrs. Bartlett has one, although she never uses it now. It was placed on the hot embers, was it not?" " Exactly," said Yates, noting with pleasure that the girl was thawing, as he expressed it to himself. " The hot coals were drawn out and the kettle placed upon them. When the lid was in position, hot coals were put on the top of it. The bread was firm and white and sweet inside, with the most delicious golden brown crust all around. Ah, that was bread ! but perhaps I appreciated it because I was always hungry in those days. Then came the al- leged improvement of the tin Dutch oven. That waa the second stage in the evolution of bread in this country. It also belonged to the log-house and open-fireplace era. Bread baked by direct heat from the fire and reflected heat from the polished tin. I think our present cast-iron stove arrangement is preferable to that, although not up to the old-time kettle." If Margaret had been a reader of the New York Argus, she would have noticed that the facts set forth by her visitor had already appeared in that paper, much elaborated, in an article entitled " Our IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 8i Daily Bread." In the pause that ensued after Yates had finished his dissertation on the staff of life the stillness was broken by a long wailing cry. It began with one continued, sustained note, and ended with a wail half a tone below the first. The girl paid no attention to it, but Yates started to his feet. " In the name of What's that ? " Margaret smiled, but before she could answer the stillness was again broken by what appeared to be the more distant notes of a bugle. " The first," she said, " was Kitty Bartlett's voice calling the men home from the field for dinner. Mrs. Bartlett is a very good housekeeper, and is usually a few minutes ahead of the neighbours with the meals. The second was the sound of a horn farther up the road. It is what you would deplore as the age of tin applied to the dinner call, just as your tin oven supplanted the better bread maker. I like Kitty's call much better than the sound of the tin horn. It seems to me more musical, although it appeared to startle you." " Oh, you can talk ! " cried Yates with audacious admiration, at which the girl coloured slightly and deemed to retire within herself again. " And you can make fun of people's historical lore, too. Which do you use — the tin horn or the natural voice ? " " Neither. If you will look outside, you will see a flag at the top of a pole. That is our signal." It flashed across the mind of Yates that this was intended as an intimation that he might see many things outside to interest him. He felt that his visit IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I i: iffi 12.0 J£ |l.25 1.4 |i.6 o 6" ► 7 Hiotographic Sciences Corporation 33 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 I "'''V,. > %i % ■ -P'Ss!- ■#^ ' ■■■ .>.#'■ -r-ii%- ,.«v 83 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS vf: Mil had not been at all the brilliant success he had antici- pated. Of course the quest for bread had been merely an excuse He had expected to be able to efface the unfavourable impression he knew he had made by his jaunty conversation on the Ridge Road the day before, and he realised that his position was still the same. A good deal of Yates* success in life came from the fact that he never knew when he was beaten. He did not admit defeat now, but he saw he had, for some reason, not gained any advantage in a preliminary skirmish. He concluded it would be weil to retire in good order, and renew the con- test at some future time. He was so unused to any- thing like a rebuff that all his fighting qualities were up in arms, and he resolved to show this unim- pressionable girl that he was not a man to be lightly valued. As he rose, the door from the main portion of the house opened, and there entered a woman hardly yet past middle age, who \\fLd once been undoubt- edly-handsome, but on whose worn and faded face was the look of patient weariness which so often is the result of a youth spent in helping a husband to overcome the stumpy stubbornness of an American bush farm. When the farm is conquered, the victor is usually vanquished. It needed no second glance to see that she was the mother from whom the daughter had inherited her good looks. Mrs. How- ard did not appear surprised to see a stranger stand- ing there ; in fact, the faculty of being surprised at anything seemed to have left her. Margaret in- IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 83 troduced them quietly, and went about her prepara- tion for the meal. Yates greeted Mrs. Howard with effusion. He had come, he said, on a bread mission. He thought he knew something about bread, but he now learned he came too early in the day. He hoped he might have the privilege of repeating his visit. " But you are not going now ? " said Mrs. Howard with hospitable anxiety. " I fear I have already stayed too long," answered Yates lingeringly. " My partner. Professor Ren- mark, is also on a foraging expedition at your neigh- bours', the Bartletts. He is doubtless back in camp long ago, and will be expecting me." " No fear of that. Mrs. Bartlett would never let anyone go when there is a meal on the way." " I am afraid I shall be giving extra trouble by staying. I imagine there is quite enough to do in every farmhouse without entertaining any chance tramp who happens along. Don't you agree with me for once, Miss Howard ? " Yates was reluctant to go, and yet he did not wish to stay unless Margaret added her invitation to her mother's. He felt vaguely that his reluctance did him credit, and that he was improving. He could not remember a time when he had not taken without question whatever the gods sent, and this unaccus- toined qualm of modesty caused him to suspect that there were depths in his nature hitherto unexplored It always flatters a man to realise that he is deeper than he thought. 84 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS I WM I Ij Mrs. Howard laughed in a subdued manner be- cause Yates likened himself to a tramp, and Margaret said coldly : " Mother's motto is that one more or less never makes any difference." " And what is your motto, Miss Howard ? " "I don't think Margaret has any," said Mrs. Howard, answering for her daughter. " She is like her father. She reads a great deal and doesn't talk much. He would read all the time, if he did not have to work. I see Margaret has already invited you, for she has put an extra plate on the table." "Ah, then," said Yates, " I shall have much pleas- ure in accepting both the verbal and the crockery invitation. I am sorry for the professor at his lonely meal by the tent ; for he is a martyr to duty, and I feel sure Mrs. Bartlett will not be able to keep him." Before Mrs. Howard could reply there floated in to them from the outside, where Margaret was, a cheery voice which Yates hid no difficulty in recog- nising as belonging to Miss Kitty Bartlett. " Hello, Margaret ! " she said. " Is he here ? " The reply was inaudible. " Oh, you know whom I mean. That conceited city fellow." There was evidently an admonition and a warn- ing. " Well, I don't care if he does. I'll tell him so to his face. It might do him good." Next moment there appeared a pretty vision in the doorway. On the fair curls, which were flying IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 85 >f about her shoulders, had been carelessly placed her brother's straw hat, with a broad and torn brim. Her face was flushed with running ; and of the fact that she was a very lovely girl there was not the slightest doubt. "How de do?" she said to Mrs. Howard, and, nodding to Yates, cried : " I knew you were here, but I came over to make sure. There is going to be war in our house. Mother's made a prisoner of the professor already, but he doesn't know it. He thinks he's going back to the tent, and she's packing up the things he wanted, and dqing it aw- fully slow, till I get back. He said you would be sure to be waiting for him out in the woods. We both told him there was i.o fear of that. You wouldn't leave a place where there was good cook- ing for all the professors in the world." "You are a wonderful judge of character. Miss Bartlett," said Yates, somewhat piqued by her frankness, " Of course I am. The professor knows ever so much more than you, but he doesn't know when he's well off, just the same. You do. He's a quiet, stubborn man." " And which do you admire the most, Miss Bartlett — a quiet, stubborn man, or one who is con- ceited ? " Miss Kitty laughed heartily, without the slightest trace of embarrassment. " Detest, you mean. I'm sure I don't know. Margaret, which is the most objectionable ? I ** I 'm M i; m H\ 86 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS Margaret looked reproachfully at her neighbour on being thus suddenly questioned, but said noth- ing. Kitty, laughing again, sprang toward her friend, dabbed a little kiss, like the peck of a bird, on each cheek, cried : " Well, I must be off, or mother will have to tie up the professor to keep him," and was off accordingly with the speed and lightness of a young fawn. " Extraordinary girl," remarked Yates, as the flutter of curls and calico dress disappeared. "Sne is a good girl," cried Margaret emphat« ically. ' " Bless me, I said nothing to the contrary. But don't you think she is somewhat free with her opinions about other people ? " asked Yates. " She did not know that you were within hearing when she first spoke, and after that she brazened it out. That's her way. But she's a kind girl and good-hearted, otherwise she would not have taken the trouble to come over here merely because your friend happened to be surly." " Oh, Renny is anything but surly," said Yates, as quick to defend his friend as she was to stand up for hers. " As I was saying a moment ago, he is a martyr to duty, and if he thought I was at the camp, nothing would keep him. Now he will have a good dinner in peace when he knows I am not waiting for him, and a good dinner is more than he will get when I take to the cooking." By this time the silent signal on the flagpole had IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 87 done its work, and Margaret's father and brother arrived from the field. They put their broad straw hats on the roof of the kitchen veranda, and, taking water in a tin basin from the rain barrel, placed it on a bench outside and proceeded to wash vigorously, Mr. Howard was much more interested in his guest than his daughter apparently had been. Yates talked glibly, as he could always do if he had a sympathetic audience, and he showed an easy famil- iarity with the great people of this earth that was fascinating to a man who had read much of them, but who was, in a measure, locked out of the bustling world. Yates knew many of the generals in the late war, and all of the politicians. Of the latter there was not an honest man among them, according to the reporter ; of the former there were few who had not made the most ghastly mistakes. He looked on the world as a vast hoard of common- place people, wherein the men of real genius were buried out of sight, if there were any men of genius, which he seemed to doubt, and those on the top were there either through their own intrigues or because they had been forced up by circum- stances. His opinions sometimes caused a look of pain to cross the face of the older man, who was enthusiastic in his quiet way, and had his heroes. He would have been a strong Republican if he had lived in the States ; and he had watched the four- years' struggle through the papers, with keen and absorbed interest. The North had been fighting, in his opinion, for the great and undying principle of IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS ii f ! : f ■! human liberty, and had deservedly won. Yates had no such delusion. It was a politician's war, he said. Principle wasn't in it. The North would have been quite willing to let slavery stand if the situation had not been forced by the firing on Fort Sumter. Then the conduct of the war did not at all meet the approval of Mr. Yates. " Oh, yes," he said, " I suppose Grant will go down into history as a great general. The truth is that he simply knew how to subtract. That is all there is in it. He had the additional boon of an utter lack of imagination. We had many generals who were greater than Grant, but they were troubled with imaginations. Imagination will ruin the best general in the world. Now, take yourself, for example. If you were to kill a man uninten- tionally, your conscience would trouble you all the rest of your life. Think how you would feel, then, if you were to cause the death of ten thousand men all in a lump. It would break you down. The mistake an ordinary man makes may result in the loss of a few dollars, which can be replaced ; but if a general makes a mistake, the loss can never be made up, for his mistakes are estimated by the lives of men. He say ' Go * when he should have said * Come.* He says * Attack * when he should have said * Retreat.* What is the result ? Five, ten, or fifteen thousand men, many of them better men than he is, left dead on the field. Grant had noth- ing of this feeling. He simply knew how to sub- tract, as I said before. It is like this: You have IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 89 fifty thousand men and I have twenty-five thousand. When I kill twenty-five thousand of your men and you kill twenty-five thousand of my men, you have twenty-five thousand left and I have none. You are the victor, and the thoughtless crowd howls about you, but that does not make you out the greatest general by a long shot. If Lee had had Grant's number, and Grant had Lee's, the result would have been reversed. Grant set himself to do this little sum in subtraction, and he did it — did it probably as quickly as any other man would have done it, and he knew that when it was done the war would have to stop. That's all there was to it." The older man shook his head. " I doubt," he said, " if history will take your view either of the motives of those in power or of the way the war was carried on. It was a great and noble struggle, heroically fought by those deluded people who were in the wrong, and stubbornly contested at immense self-sacrifice by those who were in the right." " What a pity it was," said young Howard to the newspaper man, with a rudeness that drew a frown from his father, " that you didn't get to show *em how to carry on the war." " Well," said Yates, with a humorous twinkle in his eye, " I flatter myself that I would have given them some valuable pointers. Still, it is too late to bemoan their neglect now." " Oh, you may have a chance yet," continued the unabashed young man. " They say the Fenians are coming over here this time sure. You ought to vol- I. lif f''' '4 I 5 ■ H 90 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS unteer either on our side or on theirs, andihow how a war ought to be carried on." " Oh, there's nothing in the Fenian scare ! They won't venture over. They fight with their mouths. It's the safest way." " I believe you," said the youth significantly. Perhaps it was because the boy had been so incon« siderate as to make these remarks that Yates received a cordial invitation from both Mr. and Mrs. Howard to visit the farm as often as he cared to do so. Of this privilege Yates resolved to avail himself, but he would have prized it more if Miss Margaret had added her word — which she did not, perhaps because she was so busy looking after the bread. Yates knew, however, that with a woman apparent progress is rarely synonymous with real progress. This knowl- edge soothed his disappointment. As he walked back to the camp he reviewed his own feelings with something like astonishment. The march of events was rapid even for him, who was not slow in anything he undertook. " It is the result of leisure," he said to himself. " It is the first breathing time I have had for fifteen years. Not two days of my vacation gone, and here I am hopelessly in love I >> I CHAPTER VII Yates had intended to call at the Bartletts' and escort Renmark back to the woods ; but when he got outside he forgot the existence of the professor, and wandered somewhat aimlessly up the side road, switching at the weeds that always grow in great profusion along the ditches of a Canadian country thoroughfare. The day was sunny and warm, and as Yates wandered on in the direction of the forest he thought of many things. He had feared that he would find life deadly dull so far from New York, without even the consolation of a morning paper, the feverish reading of which had become a sort of vice with him, like smoking. He had imagined that he could not exist without his morning paper, but he now realised that it was not nearly so important a factor in life as he had supposed ; yet he sighed when he thought of it, and wished he had one with him of current date. He could now, for the first time in many years, read a paper without that vague fear which always possessed him when he took up an opposition sheet, still damp from the press. Be- fore he could enjoy it his habit was to scan it over rapidly to see if it contained any item of news which 91 1 1\ id I i Ill lis'': 9» IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS he himself had missed the previous day. The Im* pending *' scoop " hangs over the head of the news- paper man lil6 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS ■'* ! I i I ! ''' If it were not for the necessity of bread and clothing, what a good time a fellow might have ! Well, my blessing, Renny. Good-bye." Yates strolled slowly through the woods, until he came to the beginning of a lane which led to the Bartlett homestead. He saw the farmer and his son at work in the back fields. From between the dis- tant house and barn there 2rose, straight up into the still air, a blue column of smoke, which, reachmg a certain height, spread out like a thiin, hazy cloud above the dwelling. At first Yates thought that some of the outhouses were on fire, and he quickejied his pace to a run ; but a moment's reflection showed him that the column was plainly visible to the work- ers in the fields, and that if anything were wrong they would not continue placidly fit their labour. When he had walked the long length of the lane, and had safely rounded the corner of ^he barn, he saw, in the open space between that building and the house, a huge camp-fire blazing. From a pole, up- held by two crotched supports, hung a big iron ket- tle over the flames. The cauldron was full nearly to the brim, and the steam was already beginning to rise from its surface, although the fire had evidently been but recently kindled. The smoke was not now so voluminous, but Kitty Bartlett stood there with a big-brimmed straw hat in her hands, fanning it away from her face, while the hat at the same time protected her rosy countenance from the heat. She plainly was not prepared to receive visitors, and she started when the young man addressed her, flushing ; IS id clothing. Well, my is, until he led to the Eind his ^on :en the dis- up into the reachmg a hazy cloud ought that ', quicke^ied ion showed o the work- vere wrong leir labour. e lane, and rn, he saw, g and the a pole, up- g iron ket- 1 nearly to inning to evidently s not now here with anning it ame time eat. She and she , flushing IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 97 still more deeply, apparently annoyed at his unwel- come appearance. " Good-afternoon," he said cordially. " Preparing for washing ? I thought Monday was washing-day.'* « It is." " Then I have not been misinformed. And you are not preparing for washing ? " " We are." Yates laughed so heartily that Kitty, in spite of herself, had to permit a smile to brighten her own features. She always found it difficult to remain solemn for any length of time. " This is obviously a conundrum," said Yates, ticking off the items on his four fingers. " First, Monday is wa&hing-day. Second, this is not Mon- day. Third, neither is to-morrow. Fourth, w* are preparing for washing. I give it up. Miss Bartlett. Please tell me the answer." " The answer is that I am making soap ; soft soap, if you know what that is." " Practically, I don't Vr.ow what it is ; but I have heard the term used in a political connection. In the States we say that if a man is very diplomatic he uses soft soap, so I suppose it has lubricating qualities Sam Slick used the term 'soft sawder* in the same way ; but what sawder is, soft or hard, I haven't the slightest idea." " I thought you knew everything, Mr. Yates." " Me ? Bless you, no. I'm an humble gleaner in the field of knowledge. That's why I brought a Toronto professor with me. I want to learn 7 f. ill 4 1 1 • i^,- i I 98 IN TH^ MIDST OF ALARMS something. Won't you teach me how . to make soap?" " I'm very busy just now. When I said that we were preparing for washing, I should perhaps have told you there was something else we are not pre- pared for to-day. " "What is that?" ^ "A visitor." " Oh, I say, Miss Bartlett, you are a little hard on me. I'm not a visitor. I'm a friend of the family. I want to help You will find me a most diligent student. Won't you give me a chance ? " "All the hard work's done. But perhaps you knew that before you came." Yates looked at her reproachfully, and sighed deeply. " That's what it is to be a misunderstood man. So you think, among other bad qualities, I have the habit of shirking work ? Let me tell you. Miss Bart- lett, that the reason I am here is because I have worked too hard. Now, confess that you are sorry for what you said — trampling on an already down- trodden man." Kitty laughed merrily at this, and Yates laughed also, for his sense of comradeship was strong. " You don't look as if you had ever worked in your life ; I don't believe you know what work is." " But there are different kinds of labour. Don't you call writing work ? " " No." " That's just where you're mistaken. It is, and IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 99 hard work, too. I'll tell you about the newspaper business if you'll tell me about soap-making. Fair exchange. I wish you would take me as a pupil, Miss Bartlett ; you would find me quick at picking up things." " Well, then, pick up that pail and draw a pailful of water." "I'll do it," cried Yates sternly; "I'll do it, though it blast me." Yates selected a wooden pail, painted blue on the outside, with a red stripe near the top for orna- ment, and cream-coloured inside. It was called a " patent-pail " in those days, as it was a comparatively recent innovation, being cheaper, lighter, and stronger than the tin pail which it was rapidly re- placing. At the well was a stout pole, pinned through the centre to an upright support on which it swung, like the walking-beam of an engine. The thick end, which rested on the ground, was loaded with heavy stones ; while from the thin end, high in the air, there dangled over the mouth of the well a slim pole with a hook. This hook was ingeniously furnished with a spring of hickory, which snapped when the handle of the pail was placed on the hook, and prevented the " patent " utensil from slipping off when it was lowered to the surface of the water. Yates speedily recognised the usefulness of this con- trivance, for he found that the filling of a wooden pail in a deep well was not the simple affair it looked. The bucket bobbed about on the surface Qf the water. Once he forgot the necessity of keep- if' w in 1 I W'9 »'»! I ioo IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS ing a stout grip on the pole, and the next instant the pail came up to the sunlight with a suddenness that was terrifying. Only an equally sudden back- ward jump on Yates' part saved his head. Miss Bartlett was pleased to look upon this incident as funny. Yates was so startled by the unexpected revolt of the pail that his native courtesy did not get a chance to prevent Kitty from drawing up the water herself. She lowered the vessel, pulling down the pole in a hand-over-hand manner that the young man thought decidedly fetching, and then she gave an almost imperceptible twist to the arrangement that resulted in instant success. The next thing Yates knew the full pail was resting on the well curb, and the hickory spring had given the click that released the handle. ** There," said Kitty, suppressing her merriment, "that's how it's done." " I see the result, Miss Bartlett ; but I'm not sure I can do the trick. These things are not so simple as they seem. What is the next step ? " " Pour the water into the leach." " Into the what ? " " Into the leach, I said. Where else ? " " Oh, I'm up a tree again. I see I don't even know the A B C of this business. In the old days the leech was a physician. You don't mean I'm to drown a doctor ? " "This is the leach," said Kitty, pointing to a large, yellowish, upright wooden cylinder, which rested on some slanting boards, down the surface of IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS lOI which ran a brownish liquid that dripped into a trough. As YatRs stood on a bench with the pail in his hand h ; saw that the cylinder was filled nearly to the top with sodden wood ashes. He poured in the water, and it sank quickly out of sight. " So this is part of the soap-making equipment ? ** he said, stepping down ; " I thought the iron kettle over the fire was the whole factory. Tell me about the leach." "That is where the hard work of soap-making comes in," said Kitty, stirring the contents of the iron kettle with a long stick. " Keeping the leach supplied with water at first is no fun, for then the ashes are dry. If you put in five more pails of water, I will tell you about it." " Right I " cried Yates, pleased to see that the girl's first objection to his presence was fast disap- pearing. " Now you'll understand how energetic I am. I'm a handy man about a place." When he had completed his task, she was still stirring the thickening liquid in the caldron, guard- ing her face from the flames with her big straw hat. Her clustering, tangled fair hair was down about her shoulders ; and Yates, as he put the pail in its place, when it had been emptied the fifth time, thought she formed a very pretty picture standing there by the fire, even if she were making soft soap. " The wicked genii has finished the task set him by the fairy princess. Now for the reward. I want all the particulars about the leach. In the first 102 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS M'/M place, where do you get this huge wooden cylinder that I have, without apparent effect, been pouring water into? Is it manufactured or natural ? " " Both. It is a section of the buttonwood tree." "Buttonwood? I don't think I ever heard of that. I know the beech and the maple, and some kinds of oak, but there my wood lore ends. Why the buttonwood ? ** " The buttonwood happens to be exactly suited to the purpose. It is a tree that is very fine to look at. It seems all right, but it generally isn't. It is hollow or rotten within, and, even when sound, the timber made from it is of little value, as it doesn't last. Yet you can't tell until you begin to chop whether it is of any use or not." Kitty shot a quick glance at the young man, who was sitting on a log watching her. "Go on, Miss Bartlett; I see what you mean. There are men like the buttonwood tree. The woods are full of them. I've met lots of that kind, fair to look upon, but hollow. Of course you don't mean anything personal ; for you must have seen my worth by the way I stuck to the water hauling. But go on." " Dear me, I never thought of such a thing ; but a guilty conscience, they say " said Kitty, with a giggle. ** Of course they say ; but it's wrong, like most other things they say. It's the man with the guilty conscience who looks you straight in the eye. Now that the buttonwood is chopped down, what's the next thing to be done ? " IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 103 " It is sawn off at the proper length, square at one end and slanting at the other.'* " Why slanting ? " " Don't you see, the foundation of plank on which it rests is inclined, so the end of the leach that is down must be slar'ngly cut, otherwise it would not stand perpendicularly. It would topple over in the first windstorm." " I see, I see. Then they haul it in and set it up ? " " Oh, dear no ; not yet. They build a fire in it when it gets dry enough." " Really ? I think I understand the comprehen- sive scheme, but I slip up on the details, as when I tried to submerge that wooden pail. What's the fire for ? " "To burn out what remains of the soft inside wood, so as to leave only the hard outside shell. Then the charring of the inner surface is supposed to make the leach better — more water-tight, perhaps." " Quite so. Then it is hauled in and set up ? " " Yes ; and gradually filled with ashes. When it is full, we pour the water in it, and catch the lye as it drips out. This is put in the caldron with grease, pigskins, and that sort of thing, and when it boils long enough, the result is soft soap." " And if you boil it too long, what is the result ? " " Hard soap, I suppose. I never boil it too long." The conversation was here interrupted by a hiss- ing in the fire, caused by the tumultuous boiling over of the soap. Kitty hurriedly threw in a basin of cold lye, and stirred the mixture vigorously. ? I 1^4 hi; 104 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS " You see," she said reproachfully, " the result of keeping me talking nonsense to you. Now you will have to make up for it by bringing in some wood and putting more water into the leach." " With the utmost pleasure," cried Yates, spring- ing to his feet. " It is a delight to atone for a fault by obeying your commands." The girl laughed. "Buttonwood," she said. Before Yates could think of anything to say in reply Mrs. Bartlett appeared at the back door. " How is the soap getting on, Kitty ? " she asked. " Why, Mr. Yates, are you here ? " " Am I here ? I should say I was. Very much here. I'm the hired man. I'm the hewer of wood and the hauler of water, or, to speak more cor* rectly, I'm the hauler of both. And besides, I've been learning how to make soap, Mrs. Bartlett." " Well, it won't hurt you to know how." " You bet it won't. When I get back to New York, the first thing I shall do will be to chop down a buttonwood tree in the park, if I can find one, and set up a leach for myself. Lye comes useful in running a paper." Mrs. Bartlett's eyes twinkled, for, although she did not quite understand his nonsense, she knew it was nonsense, and she had a liking for frivolous persons, her own husband being so sombre-minded. " Tea is ready," she said. " Of course you will stay, Mr. Yates." " Really, Mrs. Bartlett, I cannot conscientiously do so. I haven't earned a meal since the last one. I! I i 1 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 105 No ; my conscience won't let me accept, but thank you all the same." " Nonsense ; my conscience won't let you go away hungry. If nobody were to eat but those who earn their victuals, there would be more starving people in the world than there are. Of course yoc.'^l stay." " Now, that's what I like, Mrs. Bartlett. I like to have a chance of refusing an invitation I yearn for, and then be forced to accept. That's true hos- pitality." Then in a whisper he added to Kitty : "If you dare to say ' buttonwood,' Miss Bartlett, you and I will quarrel." But Kitty said nothing, now that her mother had appeared on the scene, but industriously stirred the contents of the iron kettle. " Kitty," said the mother, " you call the men to supper." " I can't leave this," said Kitty, flushing ; " it will boil over. You call, mother." So Mrs. Bartlett held her open palms on each side of her mouth, and gave the long wailing cry, which was faintly answered from the fields, and Yates, who knew a thing or two, noted with secret satis- faction that Kitty had refused doubtless because he was there. Il . ■ t!! CHAPTER VIII " I TELL you what it is, Renny," said Yates, a few days after the soap episode, as he swung in his hammock at the camp, " I'm learning something new every day." " Not really ? " asked the professor in surprise. "Yes, really. I knew it would astonish you. My chief oleasure in life, professor, is the surprising of you. 1 sometimes wonder why it delights me ; it is so easily done." " Never mind about that. What have you been learning ? " " Wisdom, my l?oy ; wisdom in solid chunks. In the first place, I am learning to admire the resource- fulness of these people around us. Practically, they make everything they need. They are the most self-helping people that I was ever thrown among. I look upon theirs as the ideal life." " I think you said something like that when we first came here." " I said that, you ass, about camping out. I am talking now about farm life. Farmers eliminate the middleman pretty effectually, and that in itself is going a long way toward complete happiness. io6 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 107 Take the making of soap, that I told you about ; there you have it, cheap and good. When you've made it, you know what is in it, and I'll be hanged if you do when you pay a big price for it in New York. Here they make pretty nearly everything they need except the waggon and the crockery ; and I'm not sure but they made them a few years back. Now, when a man with a good sharp axe and a jack- knife can do anything from building his house to whittling out a chair, he's the most independent man on earth. Nobody lives better than these people do. Everything is fresh, sweet, and good. Perhaps the country air helps ; but it seems to me I never tasted such meals as Mrs. Bartlett, for in- stance, gets up. They buy nothing at the stores except the tea, and I confess I prefer milk myself. My tastes were always simple." " And what is the deduction ? " " Why, that this is the proper way to live. Old Hiram has an anvil and an amateur forge. He can tinker up almost anything, and that eliminates the blacksmith. Howard has a bench, saws, hammers, and other tools, and that eliminates the carpenter. The women eliminate the baker, the soap-boiler, and a lot of other parasites. Now, when you have eliminated all the middlemen, then comes independ- ence, and consequently complete happiness. You can't keep happiness away with a shotgun then." " But what is to become of the blacksmith, the carpenter, and all the rest ? " " Let them take up land and be happy too ; there's M • ii n ' :li! io8 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS plenty of land. The land is waiting for them. Then look how the master is eliminated. That's the most beautiful riddance of all. Even the car- penter and blacksmith usually have to work under a boss ; and if not, they have to depend on the men who employ them. The farmer has to please no- body but himself. That adds to his independence. That's why old Hiram is ready to fight the first comer on the slightest provocation. He doesn't care whom he offends, so long as it isn't his wife. These people know how to make what they want, and what they can't make they do without. That's the way to form a great nation. You raise, in this manner, a self-sustaining, resolute, unconquerable people. The reasvin the North conquered the South was because we drew our armies mostly from the self-reliant farming class, while we had to fight a people accustomed for generations to having things done for them." "Why lon't you buy a farm, Yates?" " Several reasons. I am spoiled for the life here. I am like the drunkard who admires a temperate life, yet can't pass a ginshop. The city virus is in my blood. And then, perhaps, after all, I am not quite satisfied with the tendency of farm life ; it is unfortu- nately in a transition state. It is at the frame-house stage, and will soon blossom into the red-brick stage. The log-house era is what I yearn for. Then every- thing a person needed was made on the farm. When the brick-house era sets in, the middleman will be rampant. I saw the other day at the Howards* a set I IN TV E MIDST OF ALARMS 109 of iancient stones that interested me as much as an Assyrian marble would interest you. They were old, home-made millstones, and they have not been used since the frame-house was built. The grist mill at the village put them out of date. And just here, notice the subtlety of the crafty middleman. The farmer takes his grist to the mill, and the miller does not charge him cash for grinding it. He takes toll out of the bags, and the farmer has a vague idea that he gets his grinding for almost nothing. The old way was the best, Renny, my boy. The farmer's son won't be as happy in the brick-house which the mason will build for him as his grandfather was in the log-house he built for himself. And fools call this change the advance of civilisation." " There is something to be said for the old order of things," admitted Renmark. " If a person could unite the advantages of what we call civilisation with the advantages of a pastoral life, he would inaugurate a condition of things that would be truly idyllic." " That's so, Renmark, that's so ! " cried Yates enthusiastically. " A brownstone mansion on Fifth Avenue, and a log hut on the shores of Lake Su- perior ! That would suit me down to the ground. Spend half the year in each place." " Yes," said the professor meditatively ; " a log hut on the rocks and under the trees, with the lake in front, would be very nice if the hut had a good library attached." " And a daily paper. Don't forget the press." " No. I draw the line there. The daily paper no IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS would mean the daily steamer or the daily train. The one would frighten away the fish, and the other would disturb the stillness with its whistle." Yates sighed. " I forgot about the drawbacks," he said. " That's the trouble with civilisation. You can't have the things you want without bringing in their trail so many things you don't want. I shall have to give up the daily paper." "Then there is another objection, worse than either steamer or train." "What's that?" " The daily paper itself." Yates sat tip indignantly. " Renmark ! " he cried, " that's blasphemy. For Heaven's sake, man, hold something sacred. If you don't lespect the press, what do you respect ? Not my most cherished feelings, at any rate, or you wouldn't talk in that flippant manner. If you speak kindly of my daily paper, I'll tolerate your library." " And that reminds me : Have you brought any books with you, Yates ? I have gone through most of mine already, although many of them will bear going over again ; still, I have so much time on my hands that I think I may indulge in a little general reading. When you wrote asking me to meet you in Buffalo, I thought you perhaps intended to tramp t^irough the country, so I did not bring as many books with me as I should have done if I had known you were going to camp out." Yates sprang from the hammock. " Books ? Well, I should say so ! Perhaps you i laily train. , the other »» •awbacks/* tion. You • • mnging in It. I shall orse than emy. For d. If you ect ? Not e, or you you speak ir library." ought any ough most will bear me on my le general meet you i to tramp as many lad known rhaps you IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS iii thmk I don't read anything but the daily papers. I'd have you know that I am something of a reader myself. You mustn't imagine you monopolise all the culture in the township, professor." The young man went into the tent, and shortly returned with an armful of yellow-covered, paper- bound small volumes, which he flung in profusion at the feet of the man from Toronto. They were mostly Beadle's Dime Novels, which had a great sale at the time. " There," he said, " you have quantity, quality, and variety, as I have before remarked. ' The Mur- derous Sioux of Kalamazoo ; ' that's a good one. A hair-raising Indian story in every sense of the world. The one you are looking at is a pirate story, judging by the burning ship on the cover. But for first-class highwaymen yarns, this other edition is the best. That's the ' Sixteen String Jack set.' They're im- mense if they do cost a quarter each. You must begin at the right volume, or you'll be sorry. You see, they never really end, although every volume is supposed to be complete in itself. They leave off at the most exciting point, and are continued in the next volume. I call that a pretty good idea, but it's rather exasperating if you begin at the last book. You'll enjoy this lot. I'm glad I brought tnem along." " It is a blessing," said Renmark, with the ghost of a smile about his lips. " I can truthfully say that they are entirely new to me." "That's all right, my boy," cried Yates loftily, ! I ' m rj m i I, S, 1 ! > 112 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS with a wave of his hand. " Use them as if they were your own." Renmark arose leisurely and picked up a quantity of the books. " These will do excellently for lighting our morn- ing camp-fire," he said. " And if you will allow me to treat them as if they were my own, that is the use to which I will put them. You surely do not mean to say that you read such trash as this, Yates ? " "Trash?" exclaimed Yates indignantly. "It serves me right. That's what a man gets for being decent to yoM, Renny. Well, you're not compelled to read them ; but if you put one of them in the fire, your stupid treatises will follow, if they are not too solid to burn. You don't knew good literature when yon see it." The professor, buoyed up, perhaps, by the conceit which comes to a man through the possession of a real sheepskin diploma, granted by a 'iniversity of good standing, did not think it necessary to defend his literary taste. He busied himself in pruning a stick he had cut in the forest, and finally he got it into the semblance of a walking cane. He was an athletic ipan, and the indolence of camp life did not suit him as it did Yates. He tested the stick in various ways when he had trimmed it to his satis- faction. "Are you ready for a ten-mile walk?" he asked of the man in the hammock. " Good gracious, no. Man wants but little walking here below, and h^ doesn't want it ten miles in IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS "3 length either. I'm easily satisfied. You're off, are you ? Well, so long. And I say, Renny, bring back some bread when you return to camp. It's the one safe thing to do ' 6 1 TOWT|pnr)™^PT-V- ii ! I i i i CHAPTER IX Renmark walked through the woods and then across the fields, until he came to the road. He avoided the habitations of man as much as he could, for he was neither so sociably inclined nor so fre- quently hungry as was his companion. He strode along the road, not caring much where it led him. Everyone he met gave him " Good-day," after the friendly custom of the country. Those with waggons or lighter vehicles going in his direction usually offered him a ride, and went on, wondering that a man should choose to walk when it was not com- pulsory. The professor, like most silent men, found himself good company, and did not feel the need of companionship in his walks. He had been relieved rather than disappointed when Yates refused to ac- company him. And Yates, swinging drowsily in his hammock, was no less grLtified. Even where men are firm and intimate friends, the first few days of camping out is a severe strain on their regard for each other. If Damon and Pythias had occupied a tent together for a week, the worst enemy of either, or both, might at the end of that time have ventured into the camp in safety, and would have been wel- come. 114 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS "5 Renmark thought of these things as he walked along. His few days' intimacy with Yates had shown him how far apart they had managed to get by following paths that diverged more and more widely the longer they were trodden. The friend- ship of their youth had turned out to be merely ephemeral. Neither would now choose the other as an intimate associate. Another illusion had gone. " I have surely enough self-control," said Renmark to himself, as he walked on, " to stand his shallow flippancy for another week, and not let him see what I think of him." Yates at the same time was thoroughly enjoying the peaceful silence of the camp. " That man is an exaggerated schoolmaster, with all the faults of the species abnormally developed. If I once open out on him, he will learn more truth about himself in ten minutes than he ever heard in his life before. What an unbearable prig he has grown to be." Thus ran Yates* thoughts as he swung in his ham- mock, looking up at the ceiling of green leaves. Nevertheless, the case was not so bad as either of them thought. If it had been, then were marriage not only a failure, but a practical impossibility. If two men can get over the first few days in camp without; a quarrel, life becomes easier, and the ten- sion relaxes. Renmark, as he polished off his ten miles, paid little heed to those he met ; but one driver drew up his horse and accosted him. TftfTT- h': 'SB 'Jm , « '■ * il: II III IE Ii6 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS " Good-day," he said. " How are you getting on in the tent ? " The professor was surprised at the question. Had their tenting-out eccentricity gone all over the coun- try ? He was not a quick man at recognising people, belonging, as he did, to the " I-remember-your-face- but-can't-recall-your-name " fraternity. It had been said of him that he never, at any one time, knew the names of more than half a dozen students in his class ; but this was an undergraduate libel on him. The young man who had accosted him was driving a single horse, attached to what he termed a " dem- ocrat " — a four-wheeled light waggon, not so slim and elegant as a buggy, nor so heavy and clumsy as a waggon. Renmark looked up at the driver with confused unrecognition, troubled because he was vaguely aware that he had met him somewhere be- fore. But his surprise at being addressed speedily changed into amazement as he looked from the driver to the load. The " democrat " was heaped with books. The larger volumes were stuck along the sides with some regularity, and in this way kept the miscellaneous pile from being shaken out on the road. His eye glittered with a new interest as it rested on the many-coloured bindings ; and he recog- nised in the pile the peculiar brown covers of the "Bohn" edition of classic translations, that were scattered like so many turnips over the top of this ridge of literature. He rubbed his eyes to make sure he was not dreaming. How came a farmer's boy to be driving a waggon-load of books in the IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 117 wilds of the country as nonchalantly as if they were so many bushels of potatoes ? The young driver, who had stopped his horse, for the load was heavy and the sand was deep, saw that the stranger not only did not recognise him, but that from the moment he saw the books he had forgotten everything else. It was evidently necessary to speak again. "If you are coming back, will you have a ride?" he asked. " I — I think I will," said the professor, descend- ing to earth again and climbing up beside the boy. " I see you don't remember me," said the latter, starting his horse again. " My name is Howard. I passed you in my buggy when you were coming in with your tent that day on the Ridge. Your partner — what's his name — ^Yates, isn't it ? — had dinner at our house the other day." " Ah, yes. I recollect you now. I thought I had seen you before ; but it was only for a moment, you know. I have a very poor memory so far as people are concerned. It has always been a failing of mine. Are these your books ? And how do you happen to have such a quantity ? " " Oh, this is the library," said young Howard. "The library?" " Yes, the township library, you know." "Oh! The township has a library, then? I didn't know." « Well, it's part of it. This is a fifth part. You ! il! )1 ' i.: 'A m ■{^i 111 : I "111 ii8 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS know about township libraries, don't you ? Your partner said you were a college man." Renmark blushed at his own ignorance, but he was never reluctant to admit it. " I ought to be ashamed ^a confess it, but I know nothing of township libraries. Please tell me about them." Young Howard was eager to give information to a professor, especially on the subject of books, which he regarded as belonging to the province of college- bred men. He was pleased also to discover that city people did not know everything. He had long had the idea that they did, and this belief had been annoyingly corroborated by the cocksureness of Yates. The professor evidently was a decent fellow who did not pretend to universal knowledge. This was encouraging. He liked Renmark better than Yates, and was glad he had offered him a ride, al- though, of course, that was the custom ; still, a per- son with one horse and a heavy load is exempt on a sandy road. " Well, you see," he said in explanation, " it's like this : The township votes a sum of money, say a hundred dollars, or two hundred, as the case may be. They give notice to the Government of the amount voted, and the Government adds the same amount to the township money, It's like the old game : you think of a number, and they double it. The Gov- ernment has a depository of books, in Toronto, I think, and they sell them cheaper than the book- stores do. At any rate, the four hundred dollars* IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 119 worth are bought, or whatever the amount is, and the books are the property of the township. Five persons are picked out in the township as librarians, and they have to give security. My father is libra- rian for this section. The library is divided into five parts, and each librarian gets a share. Once a year I go to the next section and get all their books. They go to the next section, again, and get all the books at that place. A man comes to our house to- day and takes all we have. So we get a complete change every year, and in five years we get back the first batch, which by that time we have forgotten all about. To-day is changing day all around." " And the books are lent to any person in each sec- tion who wishes to read them ? " asked the professor. " Yes. Margaret keeps a record, and a person can have a book out for two weeks; after that time there is a fine, but Margaret never fines anyone." " And do people have to pay to take out the books?" " Not likely ! " said Howard with fine contempt. "You wouldn't expect people to pay for reading books ; would you, now ? " "No, I suppose not. And who selected the vol- umes ? " " Well, the township can select the books if it likes, or it can send a committee to select them ; but they didn't think it worth the trouble and expense. People grumbled enough at wasting money on books as it was, even if they did buy them at half price. Still, others said it was a pity not to get the money ' I ."x 4 ri i : :'i|i III lllll 1)1 ;f; 11 '1 iiiii m i , 111) ; hi I20 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS out of the Government when they had the chance. I don't believe any of them cared very much about the books, except father and a few others. So the Government chose the books. They'll do that if you leave it to them. And a queer lot of trash they sent, if you take my word for it. I believe they shoved off on us all the things no one else would buy. Even when they did pick out novels, they were just as tough as the history books. ' Adam Bede * is one. They say that's a novel. I tried it, but I would rather read the history of Josephus any day. There's some fighting in that, if it is a history. Then there's any amount of biography books. They're no good. There's a * History of Napoleon.* Old Bartlett's got that, and he won't give it up. He says he was taxed for the library against his will. He dares them to go to law about it, and it ain't worth while for one book. The other sections are all asking for that book; i ot that they want it, but the whole country knows tiidc old Bartlett's a-hold- ing on to it, so they'd like to see some fun. Bart- lett's read that book fourteen times, and it's all he knows. I tell Margaret she ought to fine him, and keep on fining, but she won't do it. I guess Bart- lett thinks the book belongs to him by this time. Margaret likes Kitty and Mrs. Bartlett,— so does everybody, — but old Bartlett's a seed. There he sits now on his veranda, and it's a wonder he's not reading the * History of Napoleon.* " They were passing the Bartlett house, and young Howard raised his voice and called out: IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 121 " I say, Mr. Bartlett, we want that Napoleon book. This is changing; day, you know. Shall I come up for it, or will you bring it down? If you fetch it to the gate, I'll cart it home now." The old man paid no heed to what was said to him ; but Mrs. Bartlett, attracted by the outcry, came to the door. " You go along with your books, you young rascal I " she cried, coming down to the gate when she saw the professor. " That's a nice way to carry bound books, as if they were a lot of bricks. I'll warrant you have lost a dozen between Mallory's and here. But easy come, easy go. It's plain to be seen they didn't cost you anything. I don't know what the world's a-coming to when the township spends its money in books, as if taxes weren't heavy enough already. Won't you come in, Mr. Renmark ? Tea's on the table." " Mr. Renmark's coming with me this trip, Mrs, Bartlett," young Howard said before the professor had time to reply; " but I'll come over and take tea if you'll invite me, as soon as I have put the horse up." " You go along with your nonsense," she said ; " I know you." Then in a lower voice she asked : " How is your mother, Henry — and Margaret ?" " They're pretty well, thanks." " Tell them I'm going to run over to see them some day soon, but that need not keep them from coming to see me. The old man's going to town to-morrow," and with this hint, after again inviting :-! :'.■'* ■ !l If iSlli: ' 'ii'l! 1 i lllj nil : III) il ! ■ i ■ 1(1"! .' : • I III ,;:!'''ll|il • III!'! i ^ : i i 122 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS the professor to a meal, she departed up the path to the house. " I think I'll get down here," said Renmark, half- way between the two houses. " I am very much obliged to you for the ride, and also for what you told me about the books. It was very interesting.** "Nonsense!" cried young Howard; "I'm not going to let you do anything of the sort. You're coming home with me. You want to see the books, don't you ? Very well, then, come along. Mar- garet is always impatient on changing day, she's so anxious to see the books, and father generally comes in early from the fields for the same reason." As they approached the Howard homestead they noticed Margaret waiting for them at the gate ; but when the girl saw that a stranger was in the waggon, she turned and walked into the house. Renmark, seeing this retreat, regretted he had not accepted Mrs. Bartlett's invitation. He was a sensitive man, and did not realise that others were sometimes as shy as himself. He felt he was intruding, and that at a sacred moment — the moment of the arrival of the library. He was such a lover of books, and valued so highly the privilege of being alone with them, that he fancied he saw in the abrupt depart- ure of Margaret the same feeling of resentment he would himself have experienced if a visitor had encroached upon him in his favourite nook in the fine room that held the library of the university. When the waggon stopped in the lane, Renmark said hesitatingly : IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 123 "I think 1*11 not stay, if you don't mind. My friend is waiting for me at the camp, and will be wondering what has become of me." "Who? Yates? Let him wonder. I guess he never bothers about anybody else as long as he is comfortable himself. That's how I sized him up, ai any rate. Besides, you're never going back on carrying in the books, are you ? I counted on your help. I don'', want to do it, and it don't seem the square thing to let Margaret do it all alone ; does it, now? " ** Oh, if I can be of any assistance, I shall " ** Of course you can. Besides, I know my father wants to see you, anyhow. Don't you, father?" The old man was coming round from the back of the house to meet them. " Don't I what? " he asked. * * You said you wanted to see Professor Renmark when Margaret told you what Yates had said to her about him." Renmark reddened slightly at finding so many people had made him the subject of conversation, rather suspecting at the same time that the boy was making fun of him. Mr. Howard cordially held out his hand. ** So this is Professor Renmark, is it? I am very pleased to see you. Yes, as Henry was saying, I have been wanting to see you ever since my daugh- ter spoke of you. I suppose Henry told you that his brother is a pupil of yours? " •'Oh! is Arthur Howard your son? " cried Ren- pi ill ) ; m ill i i i:H: nil! Hill Mil ' III. .ml I iiiiii !M:h| ilHIl! I Mlllll I'llll ' rllll I '"I ' '"HI ■III !!i 124 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS mark, warming up at once. " I did not know it. There are many young men at the college, and I have but the vaguest idea from what parts of the country they all come. A teacher should have no favourites, but I must confess to a strong liking for your son. He is a good boy, which cannot be said about every member of my class.'* " Arthur was always studious, so we thought we would give him a chance. I am glad to hear he be- haves himself in the city. Farming is hard work, and I hope my boys will have an easier time than I had. But come in, come in. The missus and Mar* garet will be glad to see you, and hear how the boy is coming on with his studies.*' So they went in together. CHAPTER X " Hello ! Hello, there ! Wake up ! Break* Gosh ! fa-a-a-st ! I thought that would fetch you. I wish I had your job at a dollar a day ! " Yates rubbed his eyes, and sat up in the ham- mock. At first he thought the forest was tumbling down about his ears, but as he collected his wits he saw that it was only young Bartlett who had come crashing through the woods on the back of one horse, while he led another by a strap attached to a halter. The echo of his hearty yell still re- sounded in the depths of the woods, and rang in Yates* ears as he pulled himself together. " Did you — ah — make any remarks ? ** asked Yates quietly. The boy admired his gift of never showing surprise. " I say, don't you know that it's not healthy to go to sleep in the middle of the day ? " " Is it the middle of the day ? I thought it was later. I guess I can stand it, if the middle of the day can. I've a strong constitution. Now, what do you mean by dashing up on two horses into a man's bedroom in that reckless fashion ? " 125 126 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS ' II li; The boy laughed. " I thought perhaps you would like a ride. I knew you were alone, for I saw the professor go mooning up the road a little while ago." " Oh ! Where was he going ? ** " Hanged if I know, and he didn't look as if he knew himself. He's a queer fish, ain't he ?" " He is. Everybody can't be as sensible and handsome as we are, you know. Where are you going with those horses, young man ? " " To get them shod. Won't you come along ? You can ride the horse I'm on. It*s got a bridle. Til ride the one with the halter." " How far away is the blacksmith's shop? " " Oh, a couple of miles or so ; down at the Cross Roads." ** Well," said Yates, there's merit in the idea. I take it your generous offer is made in good faith, and not necessarily for publication." " I don't understand. What do you mean ? " "There is no concealed joke, is there? No get- ting me on the back of one of those brutes to make a public exhibition of me ? Do they bite or kick or buck, or playfully roll over a person?" " No," cried young Bartlett indignantly. " This is no circus. Why, a baby could ride one of these horses." " Well, that's about the style of horse I prefer. You see, I'm a trifle out of practice. I never rode anything more spirited Cnan a street car, and I haven't been on one of them for a week." IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 137 " Oh, you can ride all right. I guess you could do most things you set your mind to.** Yates was flattered by this palpably sincere tribute to his capacity, so he got out of the hammock. The bo/, who ^ad been sitting on the horse with both feet on one side, now straightened his back and slipped to the ground. " Wait till I throw down the fence,** he said. Yates mounted with some difficulty, and the two went trotting along the road. He managed to hold his place with some little uncertainty, but the jog- gling up and down worried him. He never seemed to alight i> quite the same place on the horse's back, and this gave an element of chance to his position which embarrassed him. He expected to come down some time and find the horse wasn't there. The boy laughed at his riding, but Yates was too much engaged in keeping his position to mind that very much. " D-d-dirt is s-s-said to b-b-be matter out of place, and that's what's the m-m-mat-matter w-w-with me.** His conversation seemed to be shaken out of him by the trotting of the horse. " I say, Bartlett, I can't stand this any longer. I'd rather walk." " You're all right," said the boy ; " we'll make him canter." He struck the horse over the flank with the loose end of the halter rein. " Here I ** shouted Yates, letting go the bridle and grasping the mane. " Don't make him go faster, III! H. I I I III:! : 411. I ll 'M r nil III! 128 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS you young fiend. I'll murder you when I get off— and that will be soon." "You're all right," repeated young Bartlett, and, much to his astonishment, Yates found it to be so. When the horse broke into a canter, Yates thought the motion as easy as swinging in a hammock, and as soothing as a rocking-chair. " This is an improvement. But we've got to keep it up, for if this brute suddenly changes to a trot, I'm done for." " We'll ketp it up until we come in sight of the Corners, then we'll slow down to a walk. There's sure to be a lot of fellows at the blacksmith's shop, so we'll come in on them easy like." " You're a good fellow, Bartlett," said Yates. " I suspected you of tricks at first. I'm afraid, if I had got another chap in such a fix, I wouldn't have let him off as easily as you have me. The temptation would have been too great." When they reached the blacksmith's shop at the Corners, they found four horses In the building ahead of them. Bartlett tied his team outside, and then, with his comrade, entered the wide doorway of the smithy. The shop was built of rough boards, and the inside was blackened with soot. It was not well lighted, the two windows being obscured with much smoke, so that they were useless as far as their original purpose was concerned ; but the doorway, as wide as that of a barn, allowed all the light to come in that the smith needed for his work. At the far end and darkest corner of the place stood the % IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 129 forge, with the large bellows behind it, concealed, for the most part, by the chimney. The forge was perhaps six feet square and three or four feet high, built of plank and filled in with earth. The top was covered with cinders and coal, while in the centre glowed the red core of the fire, with blue flames hovering over it. The man who worked the bellows chewed tobacco, and now and then projected the juice with deadly accuracy right into the centre of the fire, where it made a momentary hiss and dark spot. All the frequenters of the smithy admired Sandy's skill in expectoration, and many tried in vain to emulate it. The «invious said it was due to the peculiar formation of his front teeth, the upper row being prominent, and the two middle teeth set far apart, as if one were missing. But this was jeal- ousy ; Sandy's perfection in the art was due to no favouritism of nature, but to constant and long-con- tinued practice. Occasionally with his callous right hand, never removing his left from the lever, Sandy pulled an iron bar out of the fire and examined it critically. The incandescent end of the bar radiated a blinding white light when it was gently withdrawn, and illuminated the man's head, making his beardlef 5 face look, against its dark background, like the smudged countenance of some cynical demon glow- ing with a fire from within. The end of the bar which he held must have been very hot to an ordi- nary mortal, as everyone in the shop knew, all of them, at their initiation to the country club, having been handed a black piece oi iron from Sandy's hand, i , IJ 4l|ii 11 !l I- J l'>i ! "! II h i ii'ii 130 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS which he held unflinchingly, but which the innocent receiver usually dropped with a yell. This was Sandy's favourite joke, and made life worth living for him. It was perhaps not so good as the blacksmith's own bit of humour, but public opinion was divided on that point. Every great man has his own particular set of admirers ; and there were some who said, — under their breaths, of course, — that Sandy could turn a horseshoe as well as Macdonald himself. Experts, however, while admitting Sandy's general genius, did not go so far as this. About half a dozen members of the club were present, and most of them stood leaning against something with hands deep in their trousers pockets ; one was sitting on the blacksm.ith's bench, with his legs dangling down. On the bench tools were scat- tered round so thickly that he had had to clear a place before he could sit down ; the taking of this liberty proved the man to be an old and privileged member. He sat there whittling a stick, aimlessly bringing it to a fine point, examining it frequently with a critical air, as if he were engaged in some delicate operation which required great discrimina- tion. The blacksmith himself stooped with his back to one of the horses, the hind hoof of the animal, be- tween his knees, resting on his leathern apron. The horse was restive, looking , vei' its shoulder at him, not liking what was going on. Macdonald swore at it fluently, and requested it to stand still, holding the foot as firmly as if it were in his own iron vise» IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 131 n some :nmina- which was fixed to the table near the whittler. With his right hand he held a hot horseshoe, attached to an iron punch that had been driven into one of the nail holes, and this he pressed against the upraised hoof, as though sealing a document with a gigantic seal. Smoke and flame arose from the contact of the hot iron with the hoof, and t' .ir was filled with the not unpleasant odour of burning horn. The smith's tool-box, with hammer, pinchers, and nails, lay on the earthen floor within easy reach. The sweat poured from his grimy brow ; for it was a hot job, and Macdonald was in the habit of making the most of his work. He was called the hardest work- ing man in that part of the country, and he was proud of the designation. He was a standing re- proach to the loafers who frequented his shop, ?nd that fact gave him pleasure in their company. Be- sides, a man must have an audience when he is an expert in swearing. Macdonald's profanity was largely automatic, — a natural gift, as it were, — and he meant nothing wrong by it. In fact, when you got him fighting angry, he always forgot to swear ; but in his calm moments oaths rolled easily and picturesquely from his lips, and gave fluency to his conversation. Macdonald enjoyed the reputation round about of being a wicked man, which he was not; his language was against him, that was all. This reputation had a misty halo thrown around it by Macdonald's unknown doings * down East,' from which mystical region he had come. No one knew just what Macdonald had done, but it was admitted f 'p I III' I SI, ' 5lll' 11,;; 41)1)1 ;;:9i 132 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS on all sides that he must have had some terrible ex- periences, although he was still a young man and unmarried. He used to say : " When you have come through what I have, you won't be so ready to pick a quarrel with a man." This must have meant something significant, but the blacksmith never took anyone into his con- fidence ; and " down East " is a vague place, a sort of indefinite, unlocalised, no-man's-land, situated anywhere between Toronto and Quebec. Almost anything might have happened in such a space of country. Macdonald's favourite way of crushing an opponent was to say : " When you've had some of my experiences, young man, you'll know better'n to talk like that." All this gave a certain fascination to friendship with the blacksmith ; and the farmers* boys felt that they were playing with fire when in his company, getting, as it were, a glimpse of the dangerous side of life. As for work, the blacksmith revelled in it, and made it practically his only vice. He did everything with full steam on, and was, as has been said, a constant reproach to loafers all over the country. When there was no work to do, he made work. When there was work to do, he did \t with a rush, sweeping the sweat from his grimy brow with his hooked fore-finger, and flecking it to the floor with a flirt of the right hand, loose on the wrist, in a way that made his thumb and fore-finger snap together like the crack of a whip. This action was always accompanied with a long-drawn breath, almost a sigh, that seemed to say : ** I wish I had the easy IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 133 times you fellows have." In fact, since he came to the neighbourhood the current phrase, " He works like a steer," had given way to, '* He works like Mac- donald," except with the older people, who find it hard to change phrases. Yet everyone liked the blacksmith, and took no special ofTence at his untir- ing industry, looking at it rather as an example to others. He did not glance up as the two newcomers en- tered, but industriously pared down the hoof with a curiously formed knife turned like a hook at the point, burned in the shoe to its place, nailed it on, and rasped the hoof into shape with a long, broad file. Not till he let the foot drop on the earthen floor, and slapped the impatient horse on the flank, did he deign to answer young Bartlett's inquiry. " No,** he said, wringing the perspiration from his forehead, " all these horses ain't ahead of you, and you won't need to come next week. That's the last hoof of the last horse. No man needs to come to my shop and go away again, while the breath of life is left in me. And I don't do it, either, by sitting on a bench and whittling a stick." " That's so. That's so," said Sandy, chuckling, in the admiring tone of one who intimated that, when the boss spoke, wisdom was uttered. " That's one on you, Sam." " I guess I can stand it, if he can," said the whittler from the bench ; which was considered fair repartee, " Sit it, you mean," said young Bartlett, laughing with the others at his own joke. 1 > 'll 1 ill 1 KM it,. :jlll !' Ill/Ill f. '! i' '.' 1 ' <- i i . t 134 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS " But,** said the blacksmith severely, " we're out of shoes, and you'll have to wait till we turn some, that IS, if you don't want the old ones reset. Are they good enough ? " ** I guess so, if you can find *em ; but they're out in the fields. Didn't think I'd bring the horses in while they held on, did you ? " Then, suddenly re- membering his duties, he said by way of general introduction : " Gentlemen, this is my friend, Mr. Yates, from New York." The name seemed to fall like a wet blanket on the high spirits of the crowd. They had imagined from the cut of his clothes that he was a storekeeper from some village around, or an auctioneer from a distance, these two occupations being the highest social posi- tion to which a man might attain. They were pre- pared *^o hear that he was from Welland, or perhaps St. Catherine's ; but New York ! that was a crusher. Macdonald, however, was not a man to be put down in his own shop and before his own admirers. He was not going to let his prestige slip from him merely because a man from New York had happened along. He could not pretend to know that city, for the stranger would quickly detect the imposture, and probably expose him ; but the slightly superior air which Yates wore irritated him, while it abashed the others. Even Sandy was silent. " I've met some people from New York down East," he said in an off-hand manner, as if, after all, a man might meet a New-Yorker and still not sink into the ground. ! :id IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS "35 II •* Really ? " said Yates. " I hope you liked them." "Oh, so-so," replied the blacksmith airily. There's good and bad among them, like the rest of us." ** Ah, you noticed that," said Yates. " Well, I've often thought the same myself. It's a safe remark to make ; there is generally no disputing it." The condescending air of the New-Yorker was maddening, and Macdonald realised that he was los- ing ground. The quiet insolence of Yates' tone was so exasperating to the blacksmith that he saw any language at his disposal was inadequate to cope withit. The time for the practical joke had arrived. The conceit of this man must be taken down. He would try Sandy's method, and, if that failed, it would at least draw attention from himself to his helper. " Being as you're from New York, maybe you can decide a little bet Sandy here wants to have with somebody." Sandy, quick to take the hint, picked up the bar that always lay near enough to the fire to be uncom- fortably warm. " How much do you reckon that weighs ? " he said, with critical nicety estimating its ounces in his swaying hand. Sandy had never done it better. There was a look of perfect innocence on his bland, unsophisticated countenance, and the crowd looked on in breathless suspense. Bartlett was about to step forward and save his friend, but a wicked glare from Macdonald restrained i llli lo\ : 'Oil 111 nil J!! IP' Mm ' li..' «-;■ Mil fill I.. I 1*1 lltfl ■ i3;!i 11 136 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS him; besides, his sympathies were with his ncigrh- bours, and not with the stranger lie had brought among them. He thought resentfully that Yates might have been less high and mighty. In fact, when he asked him to come he had imagined his brilliancy would be instantly popular, and would reflect glory on himself. Now he fancied he was included in the general scorn Yates took such little pains to conceal. Yates glanced at the piece of iron, and, wit' out taking his hands from his pockets, said carelessly : " Oh, I should imagine it weighed a couple of pounds." •• Heft it," said Sandy beseechingly, holding it out to him. " No, thank you," replied Yates with a smile. " Do you think I have never picked up a hot horse- shoe before ? If you are anxious to know its weight, why don't you take it over to the grocery store and have it weighed?" *' 'Tain't hot," said Sandy, as he feebly smiled and flung the iron back on the forge. " If it was, I couldn't have held it s'long." " Oh, no," retuni'^d Yates, with a grin, '* of course not. I don't know what a blacksmith's hands are, do I ? Try something fresh." Macdonald saw there was no triumph over him among his crowd, for they all considered themselves as much involved in the failure of Sandy's trick as he did himself; but he was sure that in future some man, hard pushed in argument, would fling the New* IN THK MIDST OK ALARMS 137 Yorker at hirn. In the crUls he Mhowcd the instinct of a Napoleon. •• Well, l)oyH," he cried, " fun's fun, l)ut I've |jot to work. 1 have to earn my livinj;, anyhow." Yates enjoyed hi.s victory ; they wouldn't try " getting at " him again, he said to himself. Macdonald strode to the forge and took out the bar of white-hot iron. lie gave u scarcely percept- ible nod to Sandy, who, ever ready with tobacco juice, spat with great directness on the top of the unvil. Macdonald placed the hot iron on the spot, and quickly smote it a stalwart blow with the heavy hammer. The result was appalling. An instanta- neous spreading fan of apparently molten iron lit up the place as if a flash of lightning had cleft the .sombre, smoky ceiling. There was u crash like the bursting of a cannon. The shop was filled for ti moment with a shower of brilliant sparks, that flew like meteors to every corner of the place. Kvcryonc was prepared for the explosion except Yates. lie si)rang back with a cry, tripped, and, without havirig time to get the use of his hands from his pockets to case his fall, tumbled and rolled to the horses* heels. The animals, frightened by the report, stamped round ; and Yates had to hustle on hands and knees to .safer quarters, exhibiting more celerity than dignity. The blacksmith never smiled, but every- one else roared. The reputation of the country was safe. Sandy doubled himself up in his boisterous mirth. " There's no one like the old man 1 ** he shouted. !§ \ UNIVERSITY OF WINDSOR UBRARY ii 11 ' 'P 138 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS "Oh, lordy! lordy ! He's all wool, and a yard wide." Yates picked himself up and dusted himself off, laughing with the rest of them. " If I ever knew that trick before, I had forgotten it. That's one on me, as this youth in spasms said a moment ago. Blacksmith, shake! I'll treat the crowd, if there's a place handy." I ■Jll HIHill lis I i III !|i 3,4:11 •lUlill |v I' ill I 'IK:: 'I II I f I CHAPTER XI People who have but a superficial knowledge of the life and times here set down may possibly assert that the grocery store, and not the blacksmith's shop, used to be the real country club — the place where the politics of the country were discussed ; where the doings of great men were commended or condemned, and the government criticised. It is true that the grocery store was the club of the village, when a place like the Corners grew to be a village ; but the blacksmith's shop was usually the first build- ing erected on the spot where a village was ulti- mately to stand. It was the nucleus. As a place grew, and enervating luxury set in, the grocery store slowly supplanted the blacksmith's shop, be- cause people found a nail keg, or a box of crackers, more comfortable to sit on than the limited seats at their disposal in a smithy ; moreover, in winter the store, with its red-hot box-stove, was a place of warmth and joy, but the revelling in such an at- mosphere of enjoyment meant that the members of the club had to live close at hand, for no man would brave the storms of a Canadian winter night, and journey a mile or two through the snow, to enjoy 139 I40 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS ,;.i<< I'l:." "i ill! even the pleasures of the store. So the grocery was essentially a village club, and not a rural club. Of course, as civilisation advanced, the blacksmith found it impossible to compete with the grocer. He could not offer the same inducements. The grocery approached more nearly than the smithy the grateful epicurism of the Athenaeum, the Reform, or the Carlton. It catered to the appetite of man, besides supplying him with the intellectual stimulus of debate. A box of soda crackers was generally open, and, although such biscuits were always dry, they were good to munch, if consumed slowly. The barrel of hazel-nuts never had a lid on. The raisins, in their square box, with blue-tinted paper, setting forth the word " Malaga " under the coloured pic- ture of joyous Spanish grape-pickers, stood on the shelves behind the counter, at an angle suited to display the contents to all comers, requiring an ex- ceptionally long reach, and more than an ordinary amount of cheek, before they were got at ; but the barrel of Muscavado brown sugar was where any- one could dip his hand in ; while the man on the keg of tenpenny nails might extend his arm over into the display window, where the highly coloured candies exhibited themselves, although the person who meddled often with them was frowned upon, for it was etiquette in the club not to purloin things which were expensive. The grocer himself drew the line at the candies, and a second helping usually brought forth the mild reproof : IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 141 ** Shall I charge that, Sam ; or would you rather pay for it now ? " All these delicacies were taken in a somewhat surreptitious way, and the takers generally wore an absent-minded look, as if the purloining was not quite intentional on their part. But they were all good customers of the grocer, and the abstractions were doubtless looked on by him as being in the way of trade ; just as the giving of a present with a pound of tea, or a watch with a suit of clothes, be- came in later days. Be that as it may, he never said anything unless his generosity was taken ad- vantage of, which was rarely the case. Very often on winter nights there was a hilarious feast, that helped to lighten the shelves and burden the till. This ordinarily took the form of a splurge in cove oysters. Cove oysters, of course, came from Baltimore in round tins ; they were introduced into Canada long before the square tin boxes that now come in winter from the same bivalvular city. Cove oysters were partly cooked before being tinned, so that they would, as the advertisements say, keep in any climate. They did not require ice around them, as do the square tins which now contain the raw oysters. Someone present would say : " What's the matter with having a feed of cove oysters?" He then collected a subscription of ten cents or so from each member, and the whole was expended m several cans of oysters and a few pounds of crackers. The cooking was done in a tin basin on the top 142 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 1>«r Ma ;:s of the hot stove. The contents of the cans were emptied into this handy dish, milk was added, and broken crackers, to give thickness and consistency to the result. There were always plenty of plates, for the store supplied the crockery of the neighbourhood. There were also plenty of spoons, for everything was to be had at the grocery. What more could the most exacting man need ? On a particularly reckless night the feast ended with several tins of peaches, which needed no cooking, but only a sprinkling of sugar. The grocer was always an expert at cooking cove oysters and at opening tins of peaches. There was a general feeling among the members that, by indulging in these banquets, they were going the pace rather ; and some of the older heads feebly protested against the indulgence of the times, but it was noticed that they never refrained from doing their share when it came to spoon work. " A man has but one life to live,** the younger and more reckless would say, as if that excused the extravagance ; for a member rarely got away with- out being fifteen cents out of pocket, especially when they had peaches as well as oysters. The grocery at the Corners had been but recently established and as yet the blacksmith's shop had not looked upon it as a rival. Macdonald was monarch of all he surveyed, and his shop was the favourite gathering place for miles around. The smithy was also the patriotic centre of the district, as a black- smith's shop must be as long as anvils can take the place of cannon for saluting purposes. On the 24th i IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 143 ins were ded, and stency to lates, for ourhood. thing was ;ould the \^ reckless peaches, ikllng of t cooking 3. members ere going ids feebly les, but it >m doing younger used the ay with- illy when recently > had not monarch avourite ithy was a black- take the the 24th of May, the Queen's birthday, celebrated locally as the only day in the year, except Sundays, when Macdonald's face was clean and when he did no work, the firing of the anvils aroused the echoes of the locality. On that great day the grocer supplied the powder, which vas worth three York shillings a pound — a York shilling being twelve and a half cents. It took two men to carry an anvil, with a good deal of grunting ; but Macdonald, if the crowd were big enough, made nothing of picking it up, hoisting it on his shoulder, and flinging it down on the green in front of his shop. In the iron mass there is a square hole, and when the anvil was placed upside down, the hole was uppermost. It was filled with powder, and a wooden plug, with a notch cut in it, was pounded in with a sledge hammer. Powder was sprinkled from the notch over the surface of the anvil, and then the crowd stood back and held its breath. It was a most exciting moment. Macdonald would come running out of the shop bareheaded, holding a long iron bar, the wavering, red-hot end of which descended on the anvil, while the black- smith shouted in a terrifying voice: "Look out, there I ** The loose powder hissed and spat for a moment, then bang went the cannon, and a great cloud of smoke rolled upward, while the rousing cheers came echoing back from the surrounding forests. The helper, with the powder horn, would .spring to the anvil and pour the black explosive into the hole, while another stood ready with plug and hammer. The delicious scent of burned gunpowder i 144 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS filled the air, and was inhaled by all the youngsters with satisfaction, for now they realised what actual war was. Thus the salutes were fired, and thus the royal birthday \vas fittingly celebrated. Where two anvils were to be had, the cannonade was much brisker, as then a plug was not needed. The hole in the lower anvil was filled with powder, and the other anvil was placed over it. This was much quicker than pounding in a plug, and had quite as striking and detonating an effect. The upper anvil gave a heave, like Mark Twain's shot-laden frog, and fell over on its side. The smoke rolled up as usual, and the report was equally gratifying. Yates learned all the =^ things as he sat in the blacksmith's shop, for they were still in the month of May, and the smoke of the echoing anvils had hardly yet cleared away. All present were eager to tell him of the glory of the day. One or two were good enough to express regret that he had not been there to see. After the disaster which had over- turned Yates things had gone on very smoothly, and he had become one of the crowd, as it were. The fact that he was originally a Canadian told in his favour, although he had been contaminated by long residence in the States. Macdonald worked hard at the turning of horse- shoes from long rods of iron. Usually an extended line of unfinished shoes bestrode a blackened scant- ling, like bodiless horsemen, the scantling crossing the shop overhead, just under the roof. These were the work of Macdonald's comparatively leisure days, IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS H5 oungsters at actual thus the =innonade t needed. I powder, This was and had L'he upper ;hot-laden rolled up Mng. at in the le month nvils had i eager to two were not been lad over- )thly, and re. The Id in his d by long of horse- extended led scant- crossing hese were sure days, and they were ready to be fitted to the hoofs of any horse that came to be shod, but on this occasion there had been such a run on his stock that it was exhausted, a depletion the smith seemed to regard as a reproach on himself, for he told Yates several times that he often had as many as three dozen shoes up aloft for a rainy day. When the sledge-hammer work was to be done, one of those present stepped forward and swung the heavy sledge, keeping stroke for stroke with Mac- donald's one-handed hammer, all of which required a nice ear for time. This assistance was supposed to be rendered by Sandy ; but, as he remarked, he was no hog, and anyone who wished to show his skill was at liberty to do so. Sandy seemed to spend most of his time at the bellows, and when he was not echoing the sentiments of the boss, as he called him, he was commending the expertness of the pro tem. amateur, the wielder of the sledge. It was fun to the amateur, and it was an old thing with Sandy, so he never protested against this interference with his duty, believing in giving everyone a chance, especially when it came to swinging a heavy ham- mer. The whole scene brought back to Yates the days of his youth, especially when Macdonald, put- ting the finishing strokes to his shoe, let his hammer periodicaly tinkle with musical clangour on the anvil, ringing forth a tintinnabulation that chimed melodi- ously on the ear — a sort of anvil-chorus accompani- ment to his mechanical skill. He was a real sleight- of-hand man, and the anvil was his orchestra. lO %• 146 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS M ■» m "W'h ^1 Yates soon began to enjoy his visit to the rural club. As the members thawed out he found them all first-rate fellows, and, what was more, they were appreciative listeners. His stories were all evidently new to them, and nothing puts a man into a genial frame of mind so quickly as an attentive, sympa- thetic audience. Few men could tell a story better than Yates, but he needed the responsive touch of in- terested hearers. He hated to have to explain the points of his anecdotes, as, indeed, what story-teller does not ? A cold and critical man like the professor froze the spring of narration at its source. Besides, Renmark had an objectionable habit of tracing the recital to its origin ; it annoyed Yates to tell a modern yarn, and then discover that Aristophanes, or some other prehistoric poacher on the good things men were to say, had forestalled him by a thousand years or so. If a man is quick to see the point of your stories, and laughs heartily at them, you are apt to form a high opinion of his good sense, and to value his companionship. When the horses were shod, and young Bartlett, who was delighted at the impression Yates had made, was preparing to go, the whole company protested against the New-Yorker's departure. This was real flattery. " What's your hurry, Bartlett ? " asked the whit- tler. " You can't do anything this afternoon, if you do go home. It's a poor time this to mend a bad day's work. If you stay, he'll stay ; won't you, Mr. Yates ? Macdonald is going to set tires, and he IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS »47 he rural nd them icy were ividently a genial , sympa- ry better ich of in- plain the )ry-teller Drofessor Besides, icing the I modern or some ngs men housand le point em, you d sense, Bartlett, id made, rotested M^as real le whit- n, if you id a bad ^ou, Mr. and he needs us all to look on and see that he does it right ; don't you, Mac ? " " Yes ; I get a lot of help from you while there's a stick to whittle," replied the smith. " Then there's the protracted meeting to-night at the schoolhouse," put in another, anxious that all the attractions of the place should be brought forward. "That's so," said the whittler; "I had forgotten about that. It's the first night, sr> we must all be there to encourage old Bcnderson. You'll be on hand to-night, won't you, Macdonald?" The blacksmith made no answer, but turned to Sandy and asked him savagely what in and nation he was standing gawking there for. Why didn't he go outside and get things ready for the tire setting? What in thunder was he paying him for, anyhow ? Wasn't there enough loafers round, without him joining the ranks ? Sandy took this rating with equanimity, and, when the smith's back was turned, he shrugged his shoul- ders, took a fresh bite of tobacco from the plug which he drew from his hip pocket, winking at the others as he did so. He leisurely followed Macdonald out of the shop, saying in a whisper as he passed the whittler : " I wouldn't rile the old man, if I were you." The club then adjourned to the outside, all except those who sat on the bench. Yates asked : *' What's the matter with Macdonald ? Doesn't he like protracted meetings? And, by the way, what are protracted meetings?" I 148 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS fi III M^ii, " They're revival meetings — religious meetings, you know, for converting sinners." " Really ? " said Yates. " But why protracted ? Are they kept on for a week or two ? ** " Yes ; I suppose that's why, although, to tell the truth, I never knew the reason for the name. Pro- tracted meetings always stood for just the same thing ever since I was a boy, and we took it as mean- ing that one thing, without thinking why." " And doesn't Macdonald like them ? " " Well, you see, it's like this : He never wants to go to a protracted meeting, yet he can't keep away. He's like a drunkard and the corner tavern. He can't pass it, and he knows if he goes in he will fall. Macdonald's always the first one to go up to the penitent bench. They rake him in every time. He has religion real bad for a couple of weeks, and then he backslides. He doesn't seem able to stand either the converting or the backsliding. I suppose some time they will gather him in finally, and he will stick and become a class leader, but he hasn't stuck up to date." " Then he doesn't like to hear the subject spoken of?" '* You bet he don't. It isn't safe to twit him about it either. To tell the truth, I was pleased when I heard him swear at Sandy ; then I knew it was all right, and Sandy can stand it. Macdonald is a bad man to tackle when he's mad. There's nobody in this district can handle him. I'd sooner get a blow from a sledge-hammer than meet Mac's fist when his 1 'H' ' IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 149 dander is up. But so long as he swears it's all right. Say, you'll stay down for the meeting, won't you ? ** ** I think I will. I'll see what young Bartlett in- tends to do. It isn't very far to walk, in any case.** " There will be lots of nice girls going your way to-night after the meeting. I don't know but I'll jog along in that direction myself when it's over. That's the principal use I have for the meetings, anyhow." The whittler and Yates got down from the bench, and joined the crowd outside. Young Bartlett sat on one of the horses, loath to leave while the tire setting was going on. " Are you coming, Yates ? " he shouted, as his comrade appeared. " I think I'll stay for the meeting," said Yates, approaching him and patting che horse. He had no desire to mount and ride away in the presence of that critical assemblage. " All right," said young Bartlett. " I guess 1*11 be dovm at the meeting, too ; then I can show you the way home." " Thanks," said Yates ; " I'll be on the lookout for you." Young Bartlett galloped away, and was soon lost to sight in a cloud of dust. The others had also de- parted with their shod horses ; but there were several new arrivals, and the company was augmented rather than diminished. They sat round on the fence, or on the logs dumped down by the wayside. Few smoked, but many chewed tobacco. It was a convenient way of using the weed, and required no ISO IN THE rvIIDST OF ALARMS ■fil '111 matches, besides being safer for men who had to fre- quent inflammable barns. A circular fire burnt in front of the shop, oak bark being the main fuel used. Iron waggon tires lay hidden in this burning circle. Macdonald and Sandy bustled about making preparations, their faces, more hideous in the bright sunlight than in the compara- tive obscurity of the shop, giving them the appear- ance of two evil spirits about to attend some incan- tation scene of which the circular fire was the visible indication. Crosstrees, of four pieces of squared timber, lay near the fire, with a tireless wheel placed fiat upon them, the hub in the square hole at the centre. Shiftless farmers always resisted having tires set until they would no longer stay on the wheel. The inevitable day was postponed, time and again, by a soaking of the wheels overnight in some convenient puddle of water ; but as the warmer and dryer weather approached, this device, supplemented by wooden wedges, no longer sufficed, and the tires had to be set for summer work. Frequently the tire rolled off on the sandy highway, and the farmer was reluctantly compelled to borrow a rail from the near- est fence, and place it so as to support the axle ; he then put the denuded wheel and its tire on the waggon, and drove slowly to the nearest blacksmith's shop, his vehicle " trailing like a wounded duck," the rail leaving a snake's track behind it on the dusty road. The blacksmith had previously cut and welded the tire, reducing its circumference, and when it was IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 151 I I hot enough, he and Sandy, each with a pair of tongs, lifted it from the red-hot circle of fire. It was pressed and hammered down on the blazing rim of the wheel, and instantly Sandy and Macdonald, with two pails of water that stood handy, poured the cold liquid around the red-hot zone, enveloping themselves in clouds of steam, the quick contraction clamping the iron on the wood until the joints cracked together. There could be no loitering ; quick work was necessary, or a spoiled wheel was the result. Macdonald, alternately spluttering through fire and steam, was in his element. Even Sandy had to be on the keen jump, without a moment to call his plug of tobacco his own. Macdonald fussed and fussed, but got through an immense amount of work in an incredibly short space of time, cursing Sandy pretty much all the while ; yet that useful man never replied in kind, contenting himself with a wink at the crowd when he got the chance, and saying under his breath ; ** The old man's in great fettle to-day." Thus everybody enjoyed himself : Macdonald, be- cause he was the centre figure in a saturnalia of work ; Sandy, because no matter how hard a man has to work he can chew tobacco all the time ; the crowd, because the spectacle of fire, water, and steam was fine, and they didn't have to do anything but sit round and look on. The sun got lower and lower as, one by one, the spectators departed to do their chores, and prepare for the evening meeting. Yates at the invitation of the whittler went home with him, and thoroughly relished his evening meal. |i '■ij '(;:!' in ■ '•Hi' '1*1 ■ L*i"'l||l' CHAPTER XII Margaret had never met any man but her father who was so fond of books as Professor Ren- mark. The young fellows of her acquaintance read scarcely anything but the weekly papers ; they went with some care through the yellow almanac that was given away free, with the grocer's name printed on the back. The marvellous cures the almanac recorded were of little interest, and were chiefly read by the older folk, but the young men revelled in the jokes to be found at the bottom of every page, their only drawback being that one could never tell the stories at a paring-bee or other social gathering, because every one in the company had read them. A few of the young men came sheepishly round to get a book out of the library, but it was evident that their interest was not so much in the volume, as in the librarian, and when that fact became apparent to the girl, she resented it. Margaret was thought to be cold and proud by the youth of the neighbour- hood, or " stuck-up," as they expressed it. To such a girl a man like Renmark was a revela- tion. He could talk of other things than the weather, live stock, and the prospects for the crops. The conversation at first did not include Margaret, 15a Mi IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 153 r but she listened to every word of it with interest. Her father and mother were anxious to hear about their boy; and from that engrossing subject the talk soon drifted to university life, and the differences between city and country. At last the farmer, with a sigh, arose to go. There is little time for pleasant talk on a farm while daylight lasts. Margaret remembering her duties as librarian, began to take in the books from the waggon to the front room. Renmark, slow in most things, was quick enough to offer his assistance on this occasion ; but he reddened somewhat as he did so, for he was unused to being a squire of dames. " I wish you would let me do the porterage, he said. " I would like to earn the right to look at these books sometimes, even though I may not have the privilege of borrowing, not being a taxable resident of the township." " The librarian," answered Margaret with a smile, seems to be at liberty to use her own discretion in the matter of lending. No one has authority to look-over her accounts, or to censure her if she lends recklessly. So, if you wish to borrow books, all you have to do is to ask for them." " You may be sure I shall avail myself of the per- mission. But my conscience would be easier if I am allowed to carry them in." "You will be peiinitted to help. I like carrying them. There is no more delicious armful than books." As Renmark looked at the lovely girl, her face il ■H HiV IS4 IN THE MIDST CF ALARMS radiant with enthusiasm, the disconcerting thought came suddenly that perhaps her statement might not be accurate. No such thought had ever sug- gested itself to him before, and it now filled him with guilty confusion. He met the clear, honest gaze of her eyes for a moment, then he stammered lamely : " I — I too am very fond of books." Together they carried in the several hundred volumes, and then began to arrange them. " Have you no catalogue ? *' he asked. " No. We never seem to need one. People come nnd look over the library, and take out whatever books they fancy." "Yes, but still every library ought to be cata- logued. Cataloguing is an art in itself. I have paid a good deal of attention to it, and will "hry you how it is done, if you care to know." " Oh, I wish you would." " How do you keep a record of the volumes that are out ? " " I just write the name of the person, the title, and the date in this blank book. When the volume is returned, I score out the record." " I see," said Renmark dubiously. " That isn't right, is it ? Is there a better way ? " " Well, for a small library, that ought to do ; but if you were handling many books, I think confusion might result." " Do tell me the right way. I shouM like to know, even if it is a small library." IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 155 »» " There are several methods, but I am by no means sure your way is not the simplest, and therefore the best in this instance." " I'm not going to be put off like that," said Mar- garet, laughing. " A collection of books is a collec- tion of books, whether large or small, and deserves respect and the best of treatment. Now, what method is used in large libraries ? " " Well, I should suggest a system of cards, though slips of paper would do. When any person wants to take out a book, let him make out a card, giving the date and the name or number of the book ; he then must sign the card, and there you are. He cannot deny having had the book, for you have his own signature to prove it. The slips are arranged in a box according to dates, and when a book is returned, you tear up the recording paper." ** I think that is a very good way, and I will adopt it." " Then let me send to Toronto and get you a few hundred cards. We'll have them here in a day or two." " Oh, I don't want to put you to that trouble." " It is no trouble at all. Now, that is settled, let us attack the catalogue. Have you a blank book anywhere about ? We will first make an alphabeti- cal list ; then we will arrange them under the heads of history, biography, fiction, and so on." Simple as it appeared, the making of a catalogue took a long time. Both we ^ absorbed in their occupation. Cataloguing iu itoclf is a straight and 156 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 'ill '*i: '•III I •Sri' '•! 1 narrow path, but In this instance there were so many delightful side excursions that rapid progress could not be expected. To a reader the mere mention of a book brings up recollections. Margaret was read> ing out the names ; Renmark, on slips of paper, each with a letter on it, was writing them down. " Oh, have you that book ? " he would say, look- ing up as a title was mentioned. " Have you ever read it?" " No ; for, you see, this part of the library is all new to me. Why, here is one of which the leaves are not even cut. No one has read it. Is it good ? " " One of the best," Renmark would say, taking the volume. " Yes, I know this edition. Let me read you one passage." And Margaret would sit in the rocking-chair, while he cut the leaves and found the place. One extract was sure to suggest another, and time passed before the title of the book found its way to the proper slip of paper. These excursions into literature were most interesting to both excursionists, but they in- terfered with cataloguing. Renmark read and read, ever and anon stopping to explain some point, or quote what some one else had said on the same subject, marking the place in the book, as he paused, with inserted fore-finger. Margaret swayed back and forth in the comfortable rocking-chair, and listened intently, her large dark eyes fixed upon him so earn- estly that now and then, when he met them, he seemed disconcerted for a moment. But the girl did not notice this. At the end of one of his disserta- IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 157 tions she leaned her elbow on the arm of the chair, with her cheek resting against her hand, and said : " How very clear you make everything, Mr. Ren- mark." " Do you think so ? " he said with a smile. " It's my business, you know." " I think it's a shame that girls are not allowed to go to the university ; don't you ? " " Really, I never gave any thought to the subject, and I am not quite prepared to say." " Well, I think it nost unfair. The university is supported by the Government, is it not ? Then why should half of the population be shut out from its advantages ? " " I'm afraid it wouldn't do, you know.** "Why?" " There are many reasons," he replied evasively. " What are they ? Do you think girls could not learn, or are not as capable of hard study as well as " " It isn't that," he interrupted ; " there are plenty of girls' schools in the country, you know. Some very good ones in Toronto itself, for that matter." " Yes ; but why shouldn't I go to the university with my brother ? There are plenty of boys' schools, too, but the university is the university. I suppose my father helps to support it. Why, then, should one child be allowed to attend and the other not ? It isn't at all just." " It wouldn't do," said the professor more firmly, the more he thought about it. 1 t 158 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS '1 :' n t'^l' f f I ! " Would you take that as a satisfying reason from one of your students? "^^^hat?' " J h« I ; rase, * It wouldn't do.* " Rei.; *"k . .ughed. "I'm -iraid r 'n," he said; "but, then, I'm very exacting in class. Now, if you want to know, why do you not ask your father? " " Father and I have discussed the question often, and he quite agrees with me in thinking it unfair." "Oh, does he?" said Renmark, taken aback; although, when he reflected, he realised that the father doubtless knew as little about the dangers of the city as the daughter did. ** And what does your mother say ? " " Oh, mother thinks if a girl is a good housekeeper it is all that is required. So you will have to give me a good reason, if there is one, for nobody else in this house argues on your side of the question." " Well," said Renmark in an embarrassed manner, " if you don't know by the time you are twenty-five, I'll promise to discuss the whole subject with you." Margaret sighed as she leaned back in her chair. " Twenty-five ?" she cried, adding with the uncon- scious veracity of youth : " That will be seven years to wait. Thank you, but I think I'll find out before that time." " I think you will," Renmark answered. They were interrupted by the sudden and unan- nounced entrance of her brother. " Hello, you two ! " he shouted with the rude IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 159 familiarity of a boy. " It seems the library takes a longer time to arrange than usual." Margaret rose with dignity. " We are cataloguing," she said severely. " Oh, that's what you call it, is it ? Can I be of any assistance, or is two company when they're cataloguing? Have you any idea what tiu ■^, l s? " "I'm afraid I must be off," said thf pro sor, rising. " My companion in camp won't 'n-r"" what has become of me." " Oh, he's all right ! " said Henry. ' He's down at the Corners, and is going to stay i-.e. e for the meeting to-night. Young Bartlett passed a while ago ; he was getting the horses shod, and your friend went with him. I guess Yates can take care of him- self, Mr. Renmark. Say, sis, will you go to the meet- ing? I'm going. Young Bartlett's going, and so is Kitty. Won't you come, too, Mr. Renmark? It's great fun." " Don't talk like that about a religious gathering, Henry," said his sister, frowning. " Well, that's what it is, anyhow." "Is it a prayer meeting?" asked the professor, looking a<; the girl. "You bet it is! ".cried Henry enthusiastically, giving no one a chance to speak but himself. "It's a prayer meeting, and every other kind of meeting rolled into one. It's a revival meeting ; a protracted meeting, that's what it is. You had better come with us, Mr. Renmark, and then you can see what it b like. You can walk home with Yates." ■ f^-i »%, 'lui !. here to- night. Yet he was struck down In the c^.'\y flush of manhood — struck down almost without iVwrmT\g. When I heard of his brief illness altaough knowing nothing of its ser'ousness, something urged me to go to him, and at on-c. When i reached the house, they told m; :hat be bad ?,. ked to see me, and that they had just sent a messenger to the telegraph office with a dispatch for me. I said : * God tele- graphed to me.' They took me to the bedside of my young friend, whom I had last seen as hearty and strong as anyone here." Mr. Benderson then, in a voice quivering with emotion, told the story of the deathbed scene. His language was simple and touching, and it was evi- dent to the most callous auditor that he spoke from the heart, describing in pathetic words the event he had witnfjsed. His unadorned eloquence went straight home to every li&t.cner, and many an eye \iL ^ gave with IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 169 dimmed as he put before them a graphic picture of the serenity attending the end of a well-spent life. " As I came through among you to-night," he continued, " when you stood together in groups out- side this building, I caught a chance expression that one of you uttered. A man was speaking of some neighbour who, at this busy season of the year, had been unable to get help. I think the one to whom this man was speaking had asked if the busy man were here, and the answer was : * No ; he has not a minute to call hir own.* The phrase has haunted me since I heard it, less than an hour ago. ' Not a minute to call his own ! * I thought of it as I sa^ before you. I thought of it as I rose to addicts you. I think of it now. Who has a minute to call his own ? " The soft tones of the preacher's voice had given place to a ringing cry that echoed from the roof down on their heads. " Have you ? Have I ? Has any king, any prince, any president, any ruler over men, a minute or a morr t he can call his own ? Not one. Not one of all le teeming millions on this earth. The minutes • hat are past are yours. What use have you made ( them ? All your efforts, all your prayers, will • <: change the deeds done in any one of those mi .utes that are past, and those only are yours. The chiselled stone is not more fixed than are the deeds of the minutes that are past. Their record is for you or against you. But where now are those minutes of the future — those minutes that, from this t ne onward, you will be able to call your own when they are ill fi h 1 m ■kli.V 1 '•Ifc .^ 170 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS spent ? They are in the hand of God — in His hand to give or to withhold. And who can count them in the hand of God? Not you, not I, not the wisest man upon the earth. Man may number the Tiiles from here to the farthest visible star ; but he cannot tell you, — you; I don't mean your neighbour, I mean you, — he cannot tell YOU whether your minutes are to be one or a thousand. They are doled out to you and you are responsible for them. But there will come a moment, — it may be to-night, it may be a year hence — when the hand of God will close and you will have your sum. Then time will end for you, and eternity begin. Are you prepared for that awful moment — that m.. lent when the last is given you, and the next withheld ? What if it came now? Are you prepared for it? Are you ready to welcome it, as did our brother who died at this hour one .;hort week ago? His was not the only deathoed I have attended. Some scenes have been so seared into my brain that I can never forget them. A year ago I was called to the bedside of a dying man, old in years and old in sin. Often had he been called, but he put Christ away from him, saying: * At a more convenient season.* He knew the path, but he walked not therein. And when at last God's patience ended, and this man was stricken down, he, foolish to the last, called for me, the ser- vant, instead of to God, the Master. When I reached his side, the stamp of death was on his face. The biting finger of agony had drawn lines upon his haggard brow. A great fear was upon him, and nil IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 171 he gripped my hand with the cold grasp of death itself. In that darkened room it seemed to me I saw the angel of peace standing by the bed, but it stood aloof, as one often offended. It seemed to me at the head of the bed the demon of eternal darkness bent over, whispering to him : * It is too late ! it is too late ! * The dying man looked at me — oh, such a look I May you never be called upon to witness its like. He gasped : * I have lived— I have lived a sinful life. Is it too late ? ' ' No,' I said, trembling. *Say you believe.' His lips moved, but no sound came. He died as he had lived. The one necessary minute was withheld. Do you hear? // — was — withheld! He had not the minute to call his own. Not that minute in which to turn from everlasting damnation. He — went — down — into — hell, dying as he had lived." The preacher's voice rose until it sounded like a trumpet blast. His eyes shone, and his face flushed with the fervour of his theme. Then followed as rapidly as words could utter, a lurid, awful picture of hell and the day of judgment. Sobs and groans were heard in every part of the room. " Come — now — now ! " he cried. " Now is the appointed time, now is the day of salvation. Come now ; and as you rise pray God that in his mercy he may spare you strength and life to reach the penitent bench." Suddenly the preacher ceased talking. Stretching out his hands, he broke forth, with his splendid tenor voice, into the rousing hymn, with its spirited marching time : i ! J • I'll I P3 172 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS yfc f 1 J J I J i J/3rjJ i Come, ye sin • ners. ^oor and noed • )r. Je • tttf ntd « y sundt to tt« yoMki r J. J ;j J ij J J a iWeak> Mid ^wound-ed. liek «nd ,mi«; VtaO'^ of pit • y, lOM^ 'ttd po»«r. The whole congregation joined him. Everyone knew the words and the tune. It seemed a relief to the pent-up feelings to sing at the top of the voice. The chorus rose like a triumphal march : I'lr c- 7. r- ^4=i-i-ff^ : TVia to the Lord. Md seek sal- • va • tioo. P ound the pjaise of His dear Name: Glo • ry. hon - oar» and sal * va * tloDf 7. J /J Jli- J J I I CMit ....tlw Laid oaow I* niaji As the congregation sang the preacher in stentor- ian tones urged sinners to seek the Lord while he was yet to be found. Yates felt the electric thrill in the air, and he tugged at his collar, as {{ he were choking. He could not understand the strange exaltation that had come over him. It seemed as if he must cry aloud. All those round him were much moved. There were now no scoffers at the back of the room. Most of IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS '73 them seemed frightened, and sat looking one at the other. It only needed a beginning, and the penitent bench would be crowded. Many eyes were turned on Macdonald. His face was livid, and great beads of perspiration stood on his brow. His strong hand clutched the back of the seat before him, and the muscles stood out on the portion of his arm that was bare. He stared like a hypnotised man at the preacher. His teeth were set, and he breathed hard, as would a man engaged in a struggle. At last the hand of the preacher seemed to be pointed directly at him. He rose tremblingly to his feet and stag- gered down the aisle, flinging himself on his knees, with his head on his arms, beside the penitent bench, groaning aloud. " Bless the Lord ! ** cried the preacher. It was the starting of the avalanche. Up the aisle, with pale faces, many with tears streaming from their eyes, walked the young men and the old. Mothers, with joy in their hearts and a prayer on their lips, saw their sons fall prostrate before the penitent bench. Soon the contrite had to kneel wherever they could. The ringing salvation march filled the air, mingled with cries of joy and devout ejaculations, " God ! " cried Yates, tearing off his collar, " what is the matter with me ? I never felt like this before. I must get into the open air." He made for the door and escaped unnoticed in the excitement of the moment. He stood for a time by the fence outside breathing deeply of the M 174 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS cool, sweet air. The sound of the hymn came faintly to him. He clutched the fence, fearing he was about to faint. Partially recovering himself at last, he ran with all his might up the road, while there rang in his ears the marching words : ■ u F'cf e N ^ cr ^ I Ttm to the Lord, and seek ^ • va -' lion. ? li J J I Sound iBk pcaiw tJL HU den TlkiDBk ■) J j | j n^^M Glo • vf boa ' oun «jmd ual • vu • tion. #=d r (UN J J I I ^ OdH Ai tail JM aw « iriok M''*i CHAPTER XIV When people are thrown together, especially young people, the mutual relationship existing be- tween them rarely remains stationary. It drifts toward like or dislike ; and cases have been known where it has progressed into love or hatred. Stillson Renmark and Margaret Howard became at least very firm friends. Each of them would have been ready to admit this much. These two had a good foundation on which to build up an ac- quaintance in the fact that Margaret's brother was a student in the university of which the professor was a worthy member. They had also a topic of differ- ence, which, if it leads not to heated argument, but is soberly discussed, lends itself even more to the building of friendship than do subjects of agree- mf;nt. Margaret held, as has been indicated in a p/evious chapter, that the university was wrong in dosing its doors to women. Renmark, up to the time of their first conversation, had given the matter but little thought ; yet he developed an opinion contrary to that of Margaret, and was too honest a man, or too little of a diplomatist, to conceal it. On one occasion Yates had been present, and he threw himself, with the energy that distinguished 175 IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) *^ ■ ^y>.% 4^ y» 1.0 I.I ut L£ 2.0 m 1.25 1 ,.4 |,. 6 ^ 6" ^ ► VI n m ^p''^,^' / > > y M Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 176 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS I it him, into the woman side of the question — cordially agreeing with Margaret, citing instances and holding up to ridicule those who were against the admisiion of women, taunting them with fear of feminine com- petition. Margaret became silent as the champion of her cause waxed the more eloquent ; but whether she liked Richard Yates the better for his partisan- ship who that is not versed in the ways of women can say ? As the hope of winning her regard was the sole basis of Yates' uncompromising views on the subject, it is likely that he was successful, for his experiences with the sex were large and varied. Margaret was certainly attracted toward Renmark, whose deep scholarship even his excessive self-de- preciation could not entirely conceal; and he, in turn, had naturally a schoolmaster's enthusiasm over a pupil who so earnestly desired advancement in knowledge. Had he described his feelings to Yates, who was an expert in many matters, he would per- haps have learned that he was in love ; but Renmark was a reticent man, not much given either to intro- spection or to being lavish with his confidences. As to Margaret, who can plummet the depth of a young girl's regard until she herself gives some in- dication ? All that one is able to record is that she was kinder to Yates than she had been at the beginning. Miss Kitty Bartlett probably would not have denied that she had a sincere liking for the conceited young man from New York. Renmark fell into the error of thinking Miss Kitty a frivolous young n «ii I have iited the )ung IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS ^71 person, whereas she was merely a girl who had an inexhaustible fund of high spirits, and one who took a most deplorable pleasure in shocking a serious man. Even Yates made a slight mistake regarding her on one occasion, when they were having an evening walk together, with that freedom from chaperonage which is the birthright of every Amer- ican girl, whether she belongs to a farmhouse or to the palace of a millionaire. In describing the incident afterward to Renmark (for Yates had nothing of his comrade's reserve in these matters) he said : " She left a diagram of her four fingers on my cheek that felt like one of those raised maps of Switzerland. I have before now felt the tap of a lady's fan in admonition, but never in my life have I met a gentle reproof that seemed so much like a censure from the paw of our friend Tom Sayers." Renmark said with some seveiity that he hoped Yates would not forget that he was, in a measure, a guest of his neighbours. " Oh, that's all right," said Yates. " If you have any spare sympathy to bestow, keep it for me. My neighbours are amply able, and more than willing, to take care of themselves." And now as to Richard Yates himself. One would imagine that here, at least, a conscientious relater of events would have an easy task. Alas ! such is far from being the fact. The case of Yates was by all odds the most complex and bewildering of the four. He was deeply and truly in love with 12 i 178 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS both of the girls. Instances of this kind are not so rare as a young man newly engaged to an innocent girl tries to make her believe. Cases have been known where a chance meeting with one girl, and not with another, has settled who was to be a young man's companion during a long life. Yates believed that in multitude of counsel there is wisdom, and made no secret of his perplexity to his friend. He complained sometimes that he got little help toward the solution of the problem, but generally he was quite content to sit under the trees with Renmark and weigh the different advantages of each of the girls. He sometimes appealed to his friend, as a man with a mathematical turn of mind, possessing an education that extended far into conic sections and algebraic formulae, to balance the lists, and give him a candid and statistical opinion as to which of the two he should favour with serious proposals. When these appeals for help were coldly received, he accused his friend of lack of sympathy with his dilemma; said that he was a soulless man, and that if he had a heart it had become incrusted with the useless debris of a higher education, and swore to confide in him no more. He would search for a friend, he said, who had something human about him. The search for tne sympathetic friend, how- ever, seemed to be unsuccessful ; for Yates always returned to Renmark, to have, as he remarked, ice water dashed upon his duplex-burning passion. It was a lovely afternoon in the latter part of May, 1 866, and Yates was swinging idly in the ham- IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 179 lot so locent ; been rl, and young ilieved n, and I. He :oward le was :nmark of the i, as a sessing ections id give fiich of posals. ceived, ith his id that ith the ^ore to I for a about J, how- always :ed, ice 1. part of le ham- mock, with his hands clasped under his head, gazing dreamily up at the patches of blue sky seen through the green branches of the trees overhead, while his industrious friend was unromantically peeling po- tatoes near the door of the tent. " The human heart, Renny," said the man in the hammock reflectively, " is a remarkable organ, when you come to think of it. I presume, from your lack of interest, that you haven't given the subject much study, except, perhaps, in a physiological way. At the present moment it is to me the only theme worthy of a man's entire attention. Perhaps that is the result of spring, as the poet says ; but, anyhow, it presents new aspects to me each hour. New, I have made this important discovery : that the girl I am with last seems to me the most desirable. That is contrary to the observation of philosophers of bygone days. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, they say. I don't find it so. Presence is what plays the very deuce with me. Now, how do you account for it. Stilly ? " The professor did not attempt to account for it, but silently attended to the business in hand, Yates withdrew his eyes from the sky, and fixed them on the professor, waiting for the answer that did not come. " Mr. Renmark," he drawled at last, " I am con- vinced that your treatment of the potato is a mistake. I think potatoes should not be peeled the day before, and left to soak in cold water until to-morrow's din. ner. Of course I admire the industry that gets work »:■ i i ii'^ 1 j , i: 11 1 i8o IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS well over before its results are called for. Nothing is more annoying than duty left untouched until the last moment, and then hurriedly done. Still, virtue may be carried to excess, and a man may be too previous." " Well, I am quite willing to relinquish the avoca- tion into your hands. You may perhaps remember that for two days I have been doing your share as well as my own." '* Oh, I am not complaining about tkat, at all,'* said the hammock magnanimously. " You are ac- quiring practical knowledge, Renny, that will be of more use to you than all the learning taught in the schools. My only desire is that your education should be as complete as possible, and to this end I am willing to subordinate my own yearning desire for scullery work. I should suggest that, instead of going to the trouble of entirely removing the cover- ing of the potato in that laborious way, you should merely peel a belt around its greatest circumference. Then, rather than cook the potatoes in the slow and soggy manner that seems to delight you, you should boil them quickly, with some salt placed in the water. The remaining coat would then curl outward, and the resulting potato would be white and dry and mealy, instead of being in the condition of a wet sponge." " The beauty of a precept, Yates, is the illustrating of it. If you are not satisfied with my way of boil- ing potatoes, give me a practical object lesson," The man in the hammock sighed reproachfully, " Of coure an unimaginative person like you, Ren- IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS I8i »t mark, cannot realise the cruelty of suggesting that a man as deeply in love as I am should demean him- self by attending to the prosaic details of household affairs. I am doubly in love, and much more, there- fore, as that old bore Euclid used to say, is your suggestion unkind and uncalled for." " All right, then ; don't criticise." " Yes, there is a certain sweet reasonableness in your curt suggestion. A man who is unable, or un- v/illing, to labour in the vineyard should not find fault with the pickers. And now, Rcnny, for the hun- dredth time of asking, add to the many obligations already conferred, and tell me, like the good fellow you are, what you would do if you were in my place. To which of those two charming, but totally unlike, girls would you give the preference ? " " Damn ! " said the professor quietly. " Hello, Renny ! " cried Yates, raising his head. " Have you cut your finger ? I should have warned you against using too sharp a knife." But the professor had not cut his finger. His use of the word given above is not to be defended ; still, as it was spoken by him, it seemed to lose all rela- tionship with swearing. He said it quietly, mildly, and in a certain sense, innocently. He was aston- ished at himself for using it, but there had been moments during the past few days when the ordinary expletives set down in the learned volumes of higher mathematics did not fit the occasion. Before anything more could be said there was a shout from the roadway near them. I82 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS i m fi- ll- If:.! .■;■■;' mm: " Is Richard Yates there ? " hailed the voice. " Yes. Who wants him ? " cried Yates springing out of the hammock. " I do," said a young fellow on horseback. He threw himself off a tired horse, tied the animal to a sapling, — which, judging by the horse's condition, was an entirely unnecessary operation, — ^jumped over the rail fence, and approached through the woods. The young men saw coming toward them, a tall lad in the uniform of the telegraph service. " I'm Yates. What is it?" " Well," said the lad, " I've had a hunt and a half for you. Here's a telegram." " How in the world did you find out where I was? Nobody has my address." "That's just the trouble. It would have saved somebody in New York a pile of money if you had left it. No man ought to go to the woods without leaving his address at a telegraph office, anyhow." The young man looked at the world from a tele- graphic point of view. People were good or bad according to the trouble they gave a telegraph mes- senger, Yates took the yellow envelope, addressed in lead pencil, but, without opening it, repeated his question : " But how on earth did you find me?" " Well, it wasn't easy," said the boy. " My horse is about done out. I'm from Buffalo. They tele- graphed from New York that we were to spare no expense; and we haven't. There are seven other fellows scouring the country on horseback with IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 183 duplicates of that despatch, and some more have gone along the lake shore on the American side. Say, no other messenger has been here before me, has he ' ** asked the boy with a touch of anxiety in his voice. *' No ; you are the first." " I'm glad of that. I've been 'most all over Canada. I got on your trail about two hours ago, and the folks at the farmhouse down below said you were up here. Is there any answer ? ** Yates tore open the envelope. The despatch was long, and he read it with a deepening frown. It was to this eiTect : " Fenians crossing into Canada at Buffalo. You are near the spot ; get there as quick as possible. Five of our men leave for Buffalo to-night. General O'Neill is in command of Fenian army. He will give you every facility when you tell him who you are. When five arrive, they will report to you. Place one or two with Canadian troops. Ge^ one to hold the telegraph wire, and send over all the stuff the wire will carry. Draw on us for cash you need ; and don't spare expense." When Yates finished the reading of this, he broke forth into a line of language that astonished Ren- mark, and drew forth the envious admiration of the Buffalo telegraph boy. " Heavens and earth and the lower regions ! I'm here on my vacation. I'm not going to jump into work for all the papers in New York. Why couldn't those fools of Fenians stay at home ? The idiots don't know when they're well off. The Fenians be hanged I " i84 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS !=• in " Guess that's what they will be," said the tele- graph boy. " Any answer, sir ? " *' No. Tell *em you couldn't find me." " Don't expect the boy to tell a lie," said the pro- fessor, speaking for the first time. " Oh, I don't mind a lie ! " exclaimed the boy, " but not that one. No, sir. I've had too much trouble finding you. I'm not going to pretend I'm no good. I started out for to find you, and I have. But I'll tell any other lie you like, Mr. Yates, if it will oblige you." Yates recognised in the boy the same emulous desire to outstrip his fellows that had influenced him- self when he was a young reporter, and he at once admitted the injustice of attempting to deprive him of the fruits of his enterprise. " No," he said, " that won't do. No ; you have found me, and you're a young fellow who will be president of the telegraph company some day, or perhaps hold the less important office of the United States presidency. Who knows ? Have you a tele- graph blank ? " " Of course," said the boy, fishing out a bundle from the leathern wallet by his side. Yates took the paper, and flung himself down under the tree. " Here's a pencil," said the messenger. "A newspaper man is never without a pencil, thank you," replied Yates, taking one out of his in- side pocket. " Now, Renmark, I'm not going to tell a lie on this occasion," he continued. " I think the truth is better on all occasions." IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 18$ tell " Right you are. So here goes for the solid truth." Yates, as he lay on the ground, wrote rapidly on the telegraph blank. Suddenly he looked up and said to the professor : " Say, Renmarki are you a doctor ? " " Of laws," replied his friend. " Oh, that will do just as well." And he finished his writing. "How is this?" he cried, holding the paper at arm's length : '•I^. F. Spbncbr, '• Managing Editor • Argus^* New York : '* I'm flat on my back. Haven't done a hand's turn for a week. Am under the constant care, night and day, of one of the most eminent doctors in Canada, who even prepares my food for me. Since leaving New York, trouble of the heart has complicated matters, and at present baffles the doctor. Con- sultations daily. It is impossible for me to move from here until present complications have yielded to treatment. " Simson would be a good man to take charge in my absence. "Yatss." " There," said Yates, with a tone of satisfaction, when he had finished the reading. " What do you think of that?" The professor frowned, but did not answer. The boy, who partly saw through it, but not quite, grinned, and said : " Is it true ? " " Of course it's true ! " cried Yates, indignant at the unjust suspicion. " It is a great deal more true than you have any idea of. Ask the doctor, there, if it isn't true. Now my boy, will you give this in when you get back to the ofBce ? Tell 'em to rush w ' I i86 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS it through to New York. I would mark it * rush/ only that never does any good, and always makes the operator mad." The boy took the paper, and put it in his wallet. " It's to be paid for at the other end," continued Yates. " Oh, that's all right," answered the messenger with a certain condescension, as if he were giving credit on behalf of the company. " Well, so long," he added. " I hope you'll soon be better, Mr. Yates." Yates sprang to his feet with a laugh, and followed him to the fence. " Now, youngster, you are up to snuff, I can see that. They'll perhaps question you when you get back. What will you say ? " " Oh, I'll tell 'em what a hard job I had to find you, and let 'em know nobody else could *a' done it, and I'll say you're a pretty sick man. I won't tell 'em you gave me a dollar I " " Right you are, sonny ; yov!ll get along. Here's five dollars, all in one bill. If you meet any other of the messengers, take them back with you. There's no use of their wasting valuable time in this little neck of the woods." The boy stuffed the bill into his vest-pocket as carelessly as if it represented cents instead of dollars, mounted his tired horse, and waved his hand in farewell to the newspaper man. Yates turned and walked slowly back to the tent. He threw himself once more into the hammock. As he expected, the professor was more taciturn than ever, and, although IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 18/ he had been prepared for silence, the silence irritated him. He felt ill-used at having so unsympathetic a companion. ** Look here, Renmark ; why don't you say some- thing ? " " There is nothing to say," ** Oh, yes, there is. You don't approve of me, do you?" " I don't suppose it makes any difference whether I approve or not." " Oh, yes, it does. A man likes to have the ap- proval of even the humblest of his fellow-creatures. Say, what will you take in cash to approve of me ? People talk of the tortures of conscience, but you are more uncomfortable than the most cast-iron conscience any man ever had. One's own conscience one can deal with, but a conscience in the person of another man is beyond one's control. Now, it is like this: I am here for quiet and rest. I have earned both, and I think I am justified in " " Now, Mr. Yates, please spare me any cheap philosophy on the question. I am tired of it." " And of me, too, I suppose ? " " Well, yes, rather — if you want to know." Yates sprang out of the hammock. For the first time since the encounter with Bartlett on the road Renmark saw that he was thoroughly angry. The reporter stood with clenched fists and flashing eyes, hesitating. The other, his heavy brows drawn, while not in an aggressive attitude, was plainly ready for an attack. Yates concluded to speak, and not to f( i88 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS ^^ li strike. This was not because he was afraid, for he was far from being a coward. The reporter realised that he had forced the conversation, and remembered he had invited Renmark to accompany him. Al- though this recollection stayed his hand, it had no effect on his tongue, " I believe,'* he said slowly, " that it would do you good for once to hear a straight, square, unbiassed opinion of yourself. You have associated so long with pupils, to whom your word is law, that it may interest you to know what a man of the world thinks of you. A few years of schoolmastering is enough to spoil an archangel. Now, I think, of all the ** The sentence was interrupted by a cry from the fence : " Say, do you gentlemen know where a fellow named Yates lives ? " The reporter's hand dropped to his side. A look of dismay came over his face, and his truculent man- ner changed with a suddenness that forced a smile even to the stern lips of Renmark, Yates backed toward the hammock like a man who had received an unexpected blow, " I say, Renny," he wailed, *' it's another of those cursed telegraph messengers. Go, like a good fel- low, and sign for the despatch. Sign it * Dr. Ren- mark, for R. Yates.* That will give it a sort of official, medical-bulletin look. I wish I had thought of that when the other boy was here. Tell him I'm lying down." He flung himself into the hammock, and Renmark, after a moment's hesitation, walked iHE MIDST OF ALARMS 189 3r he Jised jered Al. id no D you iassed > long t may thinks lough >m the fellow \look t man- i smile m who [ those lod fel- r. Ren- 3GTt of lought im I'm mock, walked toward the boy at the fence, who had repeated his question in a louder voice. In a short time he re- turned with the yellow envelope, whi:h he tossed to the man in the hammock. Yates seized it savage- ly, tore it into a score of pieces, and scattered the fluttering bits around him on the ground. The pro- fessor stood there for a few moments in silence. *• Perhaps," he said at last, "you'll be good enough to go on with your remarks." " I was merely going to say," answered Yates wearily, '* that you are a mighty good feiiow, Renny. People who camp out always have rows. That is our first ; suppose v;e let it be the last. Camping out is something like married life, I guess, and re- quires some forbearance on both siflca. That phil- osophy may be cheap, but I think it is accurate. I am really very much worried about this newspaper business. I ought, of course, to fling myself into the chasm like that Roman fellow ; but, hang it ! I've been flinging myself into chasms for fifteen years, and what good has it done ? There's always a crisis in a daily newspaper office. I want them to understand in the Argus office that I am or. my vacation.** " They will be more likely to understand from the telegram that you're on your deathbed." Yates laughed. ** That's so," he said ; " but, you see, Renny, we New Yorkers live in such an atmos- phere of exaggeration that if I did not put it strongly it wouldn't have any effect. You've got to give a big dose to a man who has been imbibing poison all 190 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS his life. They will take off ninety percent, from any statement I make, anyhow ; so, you see, I have to pile it up pretty high before the remaining ten per cent, amounts to anything." The conversation was interrupted by the crackling of the dry twigs behind them, and Yates, who had been keeping his eye nervously on the fence, turned round. Young Bartlett pushed his way through the underbrush. His face was red ; he had evidently been running. " Two telegrams for you, Mr. Yates," he panted. " The fellows that brought *em said they were im- portant ; so I ran out with them myself, for fear they wouldn't find you. One of them's from Port Colborne, the other's from Buffalo." Telegrams were rare on the farm, and young Bart- lett looked on the receipt of one as an event in a man's life. He was astonished tc see Yates receive the double event with a listles:5ness that he could not help thinking was merely assumed for effect. Yates held them in his hand, and did not tear them up at once out of consideration for the feelings of the young man, who had hrd a rac^ to deliver them. " Here's two books they wanted you to sign. They're tired out, and mother's giving them some- thing to eat." "Professor, you sign for me, won't you?" said Yates. Bartlett lingered a moment, hoping that he would hear something of the contents of the important messages ; but Yates did not even open the envelopes. IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 191 jmany lave to ;en per acklii^g ho had , turned ugh the i^ide.itly panted, vere im- for fear ■om Port ing Bart- vent in a Is receive he could r effect. ;ar them lelings of er them. to sign, bm some- u?" said although he thanked the young man heartily for bringing them. " Stuck-up cuss ! " muttered young Bartlett to himself, as he shoved the signed books into his pocket and pushed his way through the underbrush again. Yates slowly and methodically tore the en- velopes and their contents into little pieces, and scattered them as before. " Begins to look like autumn,** he said, "with the yellow leaves strewing the ground.** Ihe would Important Envelopes, IT- 1 p: I' Mi . " I CHAPTER XV 2 MmS," !i: 11 Before night three more telegraph boys found Yates, and three more telegrams in sections helped to carpet the floor of the forest. The usually high spirits of the newspaper man went down and down under the repeated visitations. At last he did not even swear, which, in the case of Yates, always in- dicated extreme depression. As night drew on he remarked feebly to the professor that he was more tired than he had ever been in going through an election campaign. He went to his tent bunk early, in a state of such utter dejection that Renmark was sorry for him, and tried ineffectually to cheer him up. " If they would all come together," said Yates bitterly, " so that one comprehensive effort of male- diction would include the lot and have it over, it wouldn't be so bad ; but this constant dribbling in of messengers v.'ould wear out the patience of a saint." As he sat in hi'^ shirt sleeves on the edge of his bunk Renmark said that things would look brighter in the morning — which was a safe remark to make, for the night wa6 dark, Yates sat silently, with his head in his hands, for tome moments. At last he said slowly : " There is 19s IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 193 found helped iy high I down lid not irays in- ' on he IS more Dugh an k early, lark was eer him Yates of male- over, it .bling in d saint.' e of his brighter :o make, lands, for There is no one so obtuse as the thoroughly good man. It is not the messenger I am afraid of, after all. He is but the outward symptom of the inward trouble. What you are seeing is an example of the workings of conscience where you thought conscience was absent. The trouble with me is that I know the newspaper depends on me, and that it will be the first time I have failed. It is the newspaper man's instinct to be in the centre of the fray. He yearns to scoop the opposition press. I will get a night's sleep if I can, and to-morrow, I know, I shall capit- ulate. I will hunt out General O'Neill, and inter- view him on the field of slaughter. I will telegraph pages. I will refurbish my military vocabulary, and speak of deploying and massing and throwing out advance guards, and that sort of thing. I will move detachments and advance brigades, and invent strat- egy. We will have desperate fighting in the columns of the Argus J whatever there is on the fields of Canada. But to a man who has seen real war this op^ra-bouffe masquerade of fighting I don't want to say anything harsh, but to me it is offen- sive. He looked up with a wan smile at his partner, sitting on the bottom of an upturned pail, as he said this. Then he reached for his hip pocket and drew out a revolver, which he handed, butt-end forward, to the professor, who, not knowing his friend carried such an instrument, instinctively shrank from it. " Here, Renny, take this weapon of devastation and soak it with the potatoes. If another messenger »3 Wi hi! 194 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS comes in on me to-night, I know I shall riddle him if I have this handy. My better judgment tells me he is innocent, and I don't yant to shed the only blood that will be spilled during this awful cam- paign." How long they had been asleep they did not know, as the ghost-stories have it, but both were suddenly awakened by a commotion outside. It was intensely dark inside the tent, but as the two sat up they noticed a faint moving blur of light, which made itself just visible through the canvas. "It's another of those fiendish messengers," v.hispered Yates. " Gi* me that revolver." " Hush ! " said the other below his breath. " There's about a dozen men out there, judging by the footfalls. I heard them coming." " Let's fire into the tent and be done with it," said a voice outside. " No, no," cried another ; " no man shoot. It makes too much noise, and there must be others about. Have ye all got yer bayonets fixed ? " There was a murmur, apparently in the afHr.na- tive. " Very well, then. Murphy and O'Rourick, come round to this side. You three stay where you are. Tim, you go to that end ; and, Doolin, come with me. " The Fenian army, by all the gods ! " whispered Yates, groping for his clothes, " Renny, give me that revolver, and I'll show you more fun than a funeral." IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 195 >» said ** No, no. They're at least three to our one. We're in a trap here, and helpless." " Oh, just let me jump out among *em and begin the fireworks. Those I didn't shoot would die of fright. Imagine scouts scouring the woods with a lantern — with a lantern, Renny ! Think of that ! Oh, this is pie ! Let me at 'em." •* Hush I Keep quiet ! They'll hear you." " Tim, bring the lantern round to this side." The blur of light moved along the canvas. " There's a man with his back against the wall of the tent. Just touch him up with your bayonet, Murphy, and let him know we're here." " There may be twenty in the tent," said Murphy cautiously. " Do what I tell you," answered the man in com- mand. Murphy progged his bayonet through the canvas, and sunk the deadly point of the weapon into the bag of potatoes. " Faith, he sleeps sound," said Murphy with a tremor of fear in his voice, as there was no demon- stration on the part of the bag. The voice of Yates rang out from the interior of the tent : " What the old Harry do you fellows think you're doing, anyhow? What's the matter with you? What do you want ? " There was a moment's silence, broken only by a nervous sculFling of feet and the clicking of gun- locka. I I'll il i III i! 196 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS " How many are there of you in there ? " said the stern voice of the chief. " Two, if you want to know, both unarmed, and one ready to fight the lot of you if you are anxious for a scrimmage." " Come out one by one," was the next command. " We'll come out one by one," said Yates, emerg- ing in his shirt sleeves, " but you can't expect us to keep it up long, as there are only two of us." The professor next appeared, with his coat on. The situation certainly did not look inviting. The lantern on the ground threw up a pallid glow on the severe face of the commander, as the footlights might illuminate the figure of a brigand in a wood on the stage. The face of the officer showed that he was greatly impressed with the importance and danger of his position. Yates glanced about him with a smile, all his recent dejection gone now that he was in the midst of a row. "Which is Murphy," he said, "and which is Doolin ? Hello, alderman ! " he cried, as his eyes rested on one tall, strapping, red-haired man who held his bayonet ready to charge, with a fierce deter- mination in his countenance that might have made an opponent quail. " When did you leave New York? and who's running the city now that you're gone ? " The men had evidently a sense of humour, in spite of their bloodthirsty business, for a smile flickered on their faces in the lantern light, and several bay- onets were unconsciously lowered. But the hard face of the commander did not relax. IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 197 I the , and dous land, nerg- us to it on. The >nthe :lights wood d that :e and it him jf that lich is eyes n who deter- lade an York? ?»» n spite ckered al bay- hard " You are doing yourself no good by your talk/* he said solemnly. " What you say will be used against you." " Yes, and what you do will be used against you ; and don't forget th : fact. It's you who are in dan- ger — not I. You are, at this moment, making about the biggest ass of yourself there is in Canada." " Pinion these men ! " cried the captain gruffly. " Pinion nothing ! " shouted Yates, shaking off the grasp of a man who had sprung to his side. But both Yates and Renmark were speedily overpowered ; and then an unseen difficulty presented itself. Murphy pathetically remarked that they had no rope. The captain was a man of resource. Cut enough rope from the tent to tie them." And when you're at it. Murphy," said Yates, " cut off enough more to hang yourself with. You'll need it before long. And remember that any dam- age you do to that tent you'll have to pay for. It's hired." Yates gave them all the trouble he could while they tied his elbows and wrists together, offering sardonic suggestions and cursing their clumsiness. Renmark submitted quietly. When the operation was finished the professor said with the calm confi- dence of one who has an empire behind him and knows it : " I warn you, sir, that this outrage is committed on British soil; and that I, on whom it is committed, am a British subject." ** Heavens and earth, Renmark, if you find it im- i< i< r li.'i :i w '11: ■ ■;;i 198 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS possible to keep your mouth shut, do not use the word ' subject/ but * citizen.' " ** 1 am satisfied with the word, and with the pro- tection given to those who use It." " Look here, Renmark ; you had better let me do the talking. You will only put your foot in it. I know the kind of men I have to deal with ; you evi- dently don't." In tying the professor they came upon the pistol in his coat-pocket. Murphy held it up to the light. " I thought you said you were unarmed ? " re- marked the captain severely, taking the revolver in his hand. " I was unarmed. The revolver is mine, but the professor would not let me use it. If he had, all of you would be running for dear life through the woods." " You admit that you are a British subject ? " said the captain to Renmark, ignoring Yates. " He doesn't admit it, he brags of it," said the latter before Renmark could speak. "You can't scare him ; so quit this fooling, and let us know how long we are to stand here trussed up like this." " I propose, captain," said the red-headed man, " that we shoot these men where they stand, and re- port to the general. They are spies. They are armed, and they denied it. It's according to the rules of war, captain." " Rules of war ? What do you know of the rules of war, you red-headed Senegambian? Rules of Hoylel Your line is digging sewers, I imagine. IN THE MTDST OF ALARMS »99 Come, captain, undo these ropes, and make up your mind quickly. Trot us along to General O'Neill just as fast as you can. The sooner you get us there the more time you will have for being sorry over what you have done." The captain still hesitated, and looked from one to the o.her of his men, as if to make up his mind whether they would obey him if he went to extremi- ties. Yates* quick eye noted that the two prisoners had nothing to hope for, even from the men who smiled. The shooting of two unarmed and bound men seemed to them about the correct way of begin- ning a great struggle for freedom. " Well," said the captain at length, " we must do it in proper form, so I suppose we should have a court-martiul. Are you agreed ? " They were unanimously agreed. " Look here," cried Yates, and there was a certain impressiveness in his voice in spite of his former levity ; " this farce has gone just as far as it is going. Go inside the tent, there, and in my coat-pocket you will find a telegram, the first of a dozen or two re- ceived by me within the last twenty-four hours. Then you will see whom you propose to shoot." The telegram was found, and the captain read it, while Tim held the lantern. He looked from under his knitted brows at the newspaper man. " Then you are one of the Argus staff." " I am chief of the Argus staff. As you see, five of my men will be with General O'Neill to-morrow. The first question they will ask him will be * Where i 200 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS is Yates ' ? The next thing that will happen will be that you will be hanged for your stupidity, not by Canada nor by the State of New York, but by your general, who will curse your memory ever after. You are fooling not with a subject this time, but with a citizen ; and your general is not such an idiot as to monkey with the United States Government ; and, what is a blamed sight worse, with the great American press. Come, captain, we've had enough of this. Cut these cords just as quickly as you can, and take us to the general. We were going to see him in the morning, anyhow." " But this man says he is a Canadian." " Thr /-'s all right. My friend is me. If you touch him, you touch me. Now, hurry up, climb down from your perch. I shall have enough trouble now, getting the general to forgive all the blunders you have made to-night, without your adding insult to injury. Tell your men to untie us, and throw the ropes back into the tent. It will soon be daylight. Hustle, and let us be off." " Untie them," said the captain, with a sigh. Yates shook himself when his arms regained their freedom. " Now, Tim," he said, " run into that tent and bring out my coat. It's chilly here." Tim instantly obeyed the request, and helped Yates on with his coat. "Good boy!" said Yates. "You've evidently been porter in a hotel." Tim grinned. 1 1 iiiii IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 201 " 1 think," said Yates meditatively, " that if you look under the right-hand bunk, Tim, you will find a jug. It belongs to the professor, although he has hidden it under my bed to divert suspicion from himself. Just fish it out and bring it here. It is not as full as it was, but there's enough to go round if the professor does not take more than his share." The gallant troop smacked their lips in anticipa- tion, and Renmark was astonished to see the jar brought forth. " You first, professor," said Yates ; and Tim innocently offered him the vessel. The learned man shook his head. Yates laughed, and took it himself. *• Well, here's to you, boys," he said. " And may you all get back as safely to New York as I will." The jar passed down along the line, until Tim finished its contents. " Now, then, for the camp of the Fenian army," cried Yates, taking Renmark's arm ; and they began their march through the woods. " Great Cxsar ! Stilly," he continued to his friend, " this is rest and quiet with a vengeance, isn't it ? m ,i-" t» f ! .r CHAPTER XVI The Fenians, determining to put their best foot foremost in the presence of their prisoners, tried at first to maintain something like military order in marching through the woods. They soon found, however, that this was a difficult thing to do. Cana- dian forests are not as trimly kept as English parks. Tim walked on ahead with the lantern, but three times he tumbled over some obstruction, and dis- appeared suddenly from view, uttering maledictions. His final effort in this line was a triumph. He fell over the lantern and smashed it. When all attempts at reconstruction failed, the prrty tramped on in go- as-you-please fashion, and found they did better without cne light than with it. In fact, although it was not yet four o'clock, daybreak was already filtering through among the trees, and the woods were perceptibly lighter. ** We must be getting near the camp," said the captain. " Will I shout, sir? " nsked Murphy. " No, no ; we can't miss it. Keep on as you are doing." They were nearer the camp than they suspected. As they blundered on among the crackling under- brush and dry twigs the sharp report of a rifle echoed 203 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 203 through the forest, and a bullet whistled above their 1 heads. 1 est foot tried at )rder in found, . Cana- h parks, lit three and dis- dictions. He fell ittempts n in go- better Ithough already woods I said the you are [spected. under- echoed " Fat the devil are you foiring at, Mike Lynch ?** cried the alderman, who recognised the shooter, now rapidly falling back. " Oh, it's you, is it ? " said the sentry, stopping in his flight. The captain strode angrily toward him. " What do you mean by firing like that ? Don't you know enough to ask for the countersign before shooting ? '* " Sure, I forgot about it, captain, entirely. But, then, ye see, I never can iiit anything ; so it's little difference it makes." The shot had roused the camp, and there was now wild commotion, everybody thinking the Canadians were upon them. A strange sight met the eye of Yates and Ren- mark. Both were astonished to see the number of men that O'Neill had under his command. They found a motley crowd. Some tattered United States uniforms were among them, but the greater number were dressed as ordinary individuals, although a few had trimmings of green braid on their clothes. Sleeping out for a couple of nights had given the gathering the unkempt appearance of a great com- pany of tramps. The officers were indistinguishable from the men at first, but afterward Yates noticed that they, mostly in plain clothes and slouch hats, had sword belts buckled around them ; and one or two had swords that had evidently seen service in the United States cavalry. I . \ li I, i 204 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS ^ I " It's all right, boys," cried the captain to the excited mob. " It was only that fooi Lynch who fired at us. There's nobody hurt. Where's the general?" " Here he comes," said half a dozen voices at once, and the crowd made way for him. General O'Neill was dressed in ordinary citizen's costume, and did not wear even a sword belt. On his head of light hair was a black soft felt hat. His face was pale, and covered with freckles. He looked more like a clerk from a grocery store than the com- mander of an army. He was evidently somewhere between thirty-five and forty years of age. "Oh, it's you, is it?" he said. "Why are you back ? Any news ? " The captain saluted, military fashion, and replied : " We took two prisoners, sir. They were en- camped in a tent in the woods. One of them says he is an American citizen, and says he knows you, so I brought them in." " I wish you had brought in the tent, too," said the general with a wan smile. " It would be an im- provement on sleeping in the open air. Are these the prisoners? I don't know either of them." " The captain makes a mistake in saying that I claimed a personal acquaintance with you, general. What I said was that you would recognise, some- what quicker than he did, who I was, and the desir- ability of treating me with reasonable decency. Just show the general that tele-^ram you took from my coat-pocket, captain.' »» :o the h who •s the ices at itizen's It. On t. His ; looked he com- lewhere are you replied : :ere en- em says ws you, )0 ," said le an im- re these g that I general. ie, some- e desir- ecency. ok from IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 205 The paper was produced and O'Neill read it over once or twice. " You are on the New York Argus, then ? " " Very much so, general." " I hope you have not been roughly used ? " " Oh, no ; merely tied up in a hard knot, and threatened with shooting — that's all." " I'm very sorry to hear that. Still, you must make some allowance at a time like this. If you will come with me, I will write you a pass which will prevent any similar mistake happening in the future." The general led the way to a smouldering camp-fire, where, out of a valise, he took writing materials and, using the valise as a desk, began to write. After he had written " Headquarters of the Grand Army of the Irish Republic " he looked up, and asked Yates his Christian name. Being answered, he inquired the name of his friend. " I want nothing from you," interposed Ren- mark. " Don't put my name on the paper." " Oh, that's all right," said Yates. " Never mind him, general. He's a learned man who doesn't know when to talk and when not to. As you march up to our tent, general, you will see an empty jug, which will explain everything. Renmark's drunk, not to put too fine a point upon it ; and he imagines himself a British subject." The Fenian general looked up at the professor. " Are you a Canadian ? " he asked. " Certainly I am." " Well, in that case, if I let you leave camp, you X' I t i f ni. Efr J 1 "- 1 i '{' ■■■■ tia- I K i 206 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS must give me your word that, should you fall in with the enemy, you will give no information to them of our position, numbers, or of anything else you may have seen while with us." " I shall not give my word. On the contrary, if I should fall in with the Canadian troops, I will tell them where you are, that you are from eight hun- dred to one thousand strong, and the worst looking set of vagabonds I have ever seen out of jail." General O'Neill frowned, and looked from one to the other. " Do you realise that you confess to being a spy, and that it becomes my duty to have you taken out and shot ? ** " In real war, yes Lut this is mere idiotic fool- ing. All cf you that don't escape will be either in jail or shot before twenty-four hours." ** Well, by the gods, it won't help jyou any. I'll have you shot inside of ten min'*ces, instead of twenty-four hours." " Hold on, general, hold on ! " cried Yates, as the angry man rose and confronted the two. " I admit that he richly deserves shooting, if you were the fool-killer, which you are not. But it won't do. I will be responsible for him. Jast finish that pass for me, and I will take care of the professor. Shoot me if you like, but don't touch him. He hasn't any sense, as you can see ; but I am not to blame for that, nor are you. If you take to shooting every- body who is an ass, general, you won't have any ammunition left with which to conquer Canada." tl IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 207 fall in ion to ig else iry, a I v\\\ tell ht hun- looking I." 1 one to ig a spy, iken out )tic fool- either in my. I'll stead of es, as the I admit were the 't do. I hat pass Shoot lasn't any Dlame for ng every- have any nada.* The general smiled in spite of himself, and re- sumed the writing of the pass. " There," he said, handing the paper to Yates. " You see, we always like to oblige the press. I will risk your belligerent friend, and I hope you will exercise more control over him, if you meet the Canadians, than you were able to exert here. Don't you think, on the whole, you had better stay with us? We are going to march in a couple of hours, when the men have had a little rest." He added in a lower voice, so that the professor could not hear : " You didn't see any- thing of the Canadians, I suppose ? " " Not a sign. No, I don't think I'll stay. There will be five of our fellows here some time to-day, I expect, and that will be more than enough. I'm really here on a vacation. Been ordered rest and quiet. I'm beginning to think I have made a mis- take in location." Yates bade good-bye to the commander, and walked with his friend out of the camp. They threaded their way among sleeping men and groups of stacked guns. On the top of one of the bayonets was hung a tall silk hat, which looked most incon- gruous in such a place. " I think," said Yates, " that we will make for the Ridge Road, which must lie somewhere in this direction. It will be easier walking than through the woods ; and besides, I want to stop at one of the farmhouses and get some breakfast. I'm as hungry as a bear after tramping so long." " Very well," answered the professor shortly. II j»o8 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 1^ I'il The two stumbled along until they reached the edge of the wood ; then, crossing some open fields, they came presently upon the road, near the spot where the fist-fight had taken place between Yates and Bartlett. The comrades, now with greater com- fort, walked silently along the road toward the west, with the reddening east behind them. The whole scene was strangely quiet and peaceful, and the recollection of the weird camp they had left in the woods seemed merely a bad dream. The morn- ing air was sweet, and the birds were beginning to sing. Yates had int'^nded to give the professor a piece of his mind regarding the lack of tact and common sense displayed by Renmark in the camp, but, somehow, the scarcely awakened day did not lend itself to controversy, and the serene stillness soothed his spirit. He began to whistle softly that popular war song, " Tramp, tramp, tramp, the boys are marching," and then broke in with the question : " Say, Renny, did you notice that plug hat on the bayonet ? " " Yes," answered the professor ; " and I saw five others scattered around the camp." "Jingo! you were observant. I can imagine nothing quite so ridiculous as a man going to war in a tall silk hat." The professor made no reply, and Yates changed his whistling to " Rally round the flag." " I presume," he said at length, " there is little use in attempting to improve the morning hour by try- Renmark, what a f( mg you, you •hiil :l IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 209 yourself in the camp ? Your natural diplomacy seemed to be slightly off the centre." " 1 do not hold diplomatic relations with thieves and vagabonds." " They may be vagabonds ; but so am I, for that matter. They may also be well-meaning, mistaken men ; but I do not think they are thieves." " While you were talking with the so-called gen- eral, one party came in with several horses that had been stolen from the neighbouring farmers, and an- other party started out to get some more." " Oh, that isn't stealing, Renmark ; that's requisi- tioning. You mustn't use such reckless language. I imagine the second party has been successful ; for here are three of them all mounted." The three horsemen in question stopped their steeds at the sight of the two men coming round the bend of the road, and awaited their approach. Like so many of the others, they wore no uniform, but two of them held revolvers in their hands ready for action. The one who had no visible revolver moved his horse up the middle of the road toward the pe- destrians, the other two taking positions on each side of the waggon way. " Who are you ? Where do you come from, and where are you going ? " cried the foremost horse- man, as the two walkers came within talking distance. " It's all right, commodore," said Yates jauntily, " and the top of the morning to you. We are hungry pedestrians. We have just come from the camp, and we are going to get something to eat." 14 if i i if I M '1 rl II ft m 210 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS I'l'iii I il; ^ ! " I must have a more satisfactory answer than that." " Well, here you have it, then," answered Yates, pulling out his folded pass, and handing it up to the horseman. The man read it carefully. " You find that all right, I expect ? " " Right enough to cause your immediate arrest." " But the general said we were not to be molested further. That is in his own handwriting." " I presume it is, and all the worse for you. His handwriting does not run quite as far as the Queen's writ in this country yet. I arrest you in the name of the Queen. Cover these men with your revolvers, and shoot them down if they make any resistance." So saying, the rider slipped from his horse, whipped out of his pocket a pair of handcuffs joined by a short, stout steel chain, and, leaving his horse stand- ing, grasped Renmark's wrist. " I'm a Canadian," said the professor, wrenching his wrist away. "You mustn't put handcuffs on me. " You are in very bad company, then. I am a constable of this county ; if you are what you say, you will not resist arrest." " I will go with you, but you mustn't handcuff me. " Oh, mustn't I ? " And, with a quick movement indicative of long practice with resisting criminals, the constable deftly slipped on one of the clasps, which closed with a sharp click and stuck like a burr. IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 211 wer than ed Yates, up to the You find e arrest." molested rou. His e Queen's the name revolvers, sistance." , whipped lined by a )rse stand- irrenching dcuffs on I am a you say, handcuff lovement criminals, le clasps, ck like a I Renmark became deadly pale, and there was a dangerous glitter in his eyes. He drew back his clinched fist, in spite of the fact that the cocked revolver was edging closer and closer to him, and the constable held his struggling manacled hand with grim determination. " Hold on ! ** cried Yates, preventing the professor from striking the representative of the law. " Don't shoot," he shouted to the man on horseback ; " it is all a little mistake that will be quickly put right. You are three armed and mounted men, and we are only two, unarmed and on foot. There is no need of any revolver practice. Now, Renmark, you are more of a rebel at the present moment than O'Neill. He owes no allegiance, and you do. Have you no respect for the forms of law and order ? You are an anarchist at heart, for all your professions. You would sing * God save the Queen ! * in the wrong place a while ago, so now be satisfied that you have got her, or, rather, that she has got you. Now, constable, do you want to hitch the other end of that arrangement on my wrist ? or have you another pair for my own special use ? " " I'll take your wrist, if you please." " All right ; here you are." Yates drew back his coat sleeve, and presented his wrist. The dangling cuff was speedily clamped upon it. The constable mounted the patient horse that stood waiting for him, watching him all the while with intelligent eye. The two prisoners, handcuffed together, took the middle of the road, with a horseman on each side of iS U if |l,f 212 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS them, the constable bringing up the rear ; thus they marched on, the professor gloomy from the indignity put upon them, and the newspaper man as joyous as the now thoroughly awakened birds. The scouts concluded to go no farther toward the enemy, but to return to the Canadian forces with their prisoners. They marched down the road, all silent except Yates, who enlivened the morning air with the sing- ing of "John Brown." " Keep quiet," said the constable curtly. "All right, I will. But look here; we shall pass shortly the house of a friend. We want to go and get something to eat." " You will get nothing to eat until I deliver you up to the of!icers of the volunteers." " And where, may I ask, are they ? " "You may ask, but I will not answer." " Now, Renmark," said Yates to his companion, "the tough part of this episode is that we shall have to pass Bartlett's house, and feast merely on the remembrance of the good things which Mrs. Bartlett is always glad to bestow on the wayfarer, I call that refined cruelty." As they neared the Bartlett homestead they caught sight of Miss Kitty on the veranda shading her eyes from the rising sun, and gazing earnestly at the approaching squad. As soon as she recog* niscd the group she disappeared, with a cry, into the house. Presently there came out Mrs. Bartlett, followed by her son, and more slowly by the old man himself. :i! '^«> ' i IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 213 They all came down to the gate and waited. "Hello, Mrs. Bartlctt!" cried Yates cheerily. "You see, the professor has got his deserts at last ; and I, being in bad company, share his late, like the good dog Tray." " What's all this about ? " cried Mrs. Bartlett. The constable, who knew both the farmer and his wife, nodded familiarly to them. " They're Fenian prisoners," he said. "Nonsense!" cried Mrs. Bartlett — the old man, as usual, keeping his mouth grimly shut when his wife was present to do the talking — " they're not Fenians. They've been camping on our farm for a week or more." " That may be," said the constable firmly, " but I have the best of evidence against them ; and if I'm not very much mistaken, they'll hang for it." Miss Kitty, who had been partly visible through the door, gave a cry of anguish at this remark, and disappeared again. " We have just escaped being hanged by the Fenians themselves, Mrs. Bartlctt, and I hope the same fate awaits us at the hands of the Canadians.** "What! hanging?" "No, no; just escaping. Not that I object to being hanged, — I hope I am not so pernickety as all that, — but, Mrs. Bartlett, you will sympathise with me when I tell you that the torture I am suffering from at this moment is the remembrance of the good things to eat which I have had in your house. I am simply starved to death, Mrs. Bartlett, and this K' ■ 1 N, i i ■;'f I, : 214 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS hard-hearted constable refuses to allow me to ask you for anything." Mrs. Bartlett came out through the gate to the read in a visible state of indignation. " Stoliker," she exclaimed, *' I'm ashamed of you ! You may hang a man if you like, but you have no right to starve him. Come straight in with me,*' she said to the prisoners. " Madam," said Stoliker severely, " you must not interfere with the course of the law." " The course of stuff and nonsense ! " cried the angry woman. " Do you think I am afraid of you, Sam Stoliker? Haven't I chased you out of this very orchard when you were a boy trying to steal my apples ? Yes, and boxed your ears, too, when I caught you, and then was fool enough to fill your pockets with the best apples on the place, after giv- ing you what you deserved. Course of the law, indeed ! I'll box your ear-: now if you say any- thing more. Get down ofT your horse, and have something to eat yourself. I dare say you need it." " This is what I call a rescue," whispered Yates to his linked companion. What is a stern upholder of the law to do when the interferer with justice is a determined and angry woman accustomed to having her own way ? Sto- liker looked appealingly at Hiram, as the supposed head of the house, but the old man merely shrugged his shoulders, as much as to say : " You see how it is yourself. I am helpless." I IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 215 ites to when 1 angry Sto. ^posed lugged low it Mrs. Bartlett marched her prisoners through the gate ard up to the house. " All I ask of you now," said Yates, " is that you will give Renmark and me seats together at the table. We cannot bear to be separated, even for an instant." Having delivered her prisoners to the custody of her daughter, at the same time admonishing her to get breakfast as quickly as possible, Mrs. Bartlett went to the gate again. The constable was still on his horse. Hiram had asked, by way of treating him to a noncontroversial subject, if thi.*, was the colt he had bought from old Brown, on the second concession, and Stoliker had replied that it was. Hiram was saying he thought he recognised the horse by his sire when Mrs. Bartlett broke in upon them. " Come, Sam," she said, " no sulking, you know. Slip off the horse and come in. How's your mother ? " " She's pretty well, thank you," said Sam sheep- ishly, coming down on his feet again. Kitty Bartlett, her gaiety gone and her eyes red, waited on the prisoners, but absolutely refused to serve Sam Stoliker^ on whom she looked with the utmost contempt, not taking into account the fact that the poor young man had been merely doing his duty, and doing it well. " Take off these handcuffs, Sam," said Mrs. Bart- lett, " until they have breakfast, at least." Stoliker produced a key and unlocked the mana- cles, slipping them into his pocket. 216 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS " Ah, now I " said Yates, looking at his red wrist, * we can breathe easier ; and I, for one, will eat more." The professor saJd nothing. The iron had not only encircled his wrist, but had entered his soul as well. Although Yates tried to make the early meal as cheerful as possible, it was rather a gloomy festi- val. Stoliker began to feel, poor man, that the paths of duty were unpopular. Old Hiram could always be depended upon to add sombreness and taciturnity to a wedding feast ; the professor, never the liveliest of companions, sat silent, with clouded brow, and vexed even the cheerful Mrs. Bartlett by showing no appreciable appetite. When the hur* ried meal was over, Yates noticing that Miss Kitty had left the room, sprang up and walked toward the kitchen door. Stoliker was on his feet in an instant, and made as though to follow him. " Sit down," said the professor sharply, speaking for the first time. " He is not going to escape. Don't be afraid. He has done nothing, and has no fear of punishment. It is always the innocent whom you stupid officials arrest. The woods all round you are full of real Fenians, but you take excellent care to keep out of their way, and give your atten* tion to molesting perfectly inoffensive people." " Good for you, professor ! " cried Mrs. Bartlett emphatically. "That's the truth, if ever it was spoken. But are there Fenians in the woods ? " " Hundreds of them. They came on us in the tent about three o'clock this morning, — or at least IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 217 tlett was an advance guard did, — and after talking of shooting us where we stood they marched us to the Fenian camp instead. Yates got a pass, written by the Fenian general, so that we should not be troubled again. That is the precious document which this man thinks is deadly evidence. He never asked us a question, but clapped the handcuffs on our wrist, vhile the other fools held pistols to our heade '' " It isn't my place to ask questions," retorted Stoliker doggedly. "You can tell all this to the colonel or the sheriff : if they let you go, I'll say nothing against it." Meanwhile, Yates had made his way into the kitchen, taking the precaution to shut the door after him. Kitty Bartlett looked quickly round as the door closed. Before she could speak the young man caught her by the plump shoulders — a thing which he certainly had no right to do. " Miss Kitty Bartlett," he said, " you've been crying." " I haven't ; and if I had, it is nothing to you." " Oh, I'm not so sure about that. Don't deny it. For whom were you crying? The professor? " " No, nor for you either, although I suppose you have conceit enough to think so." ** Me conceited ? Anything but that. Come, now, Kitty, for whom were you crying? I must know." " Please let me go, Mr. Yates," said Kitty, with an effort at dignity. *• Dick is my name. Kit." ■ ■■■ \ i\ t u\ i.tl «> T1 !i ■ '■ < sf; 2i8 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS " Well, mine is not Kit." " You're quite right. Now that you mention it, I will call you Kitty, which is much prettier than the abbreviation." " I did not * mention it." Please let me go. No- body has the right to call me anything but Miss Bartlett; that \s,you haven't, anyhow." " Well, Kitty, don't you think it is about time to give somebody the right ? Why won't you look up at me, so that I can tell for sure whether I should have accused you of crying? Look up — Miss Bartlett.'* " Please let me go, Mr. Yates. Mother will be here in a minute.'* " Mother is a wise and thoughtful woman. We'll risk mother. Beside, I'm not in the least afraid of her, and I don't believe you are. I think she is at this moment giving poor Mr. Stoliker a piece of her mind ; otherwise, I imagine, he would have followed me. I saw it in his eye." " I hate that man," said Kitty inconsequently. " I like him, because he brought me here, even if I was handcuffed. Kitty, why don't you look up at me ? Are you afraid ? " "What should I be afraid of?" asked Kitty, giv- ing him one swift glance from her pretty blue eyes. " Not of you, I hope." " Well, Kitty, I sincerely hope not. Now, Miss Bartlett, do you know why I came out here ? " " For something more to eat, very likely," said the girl mischievously. IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 219 iss ** Oh, I say, that to a man in captivity is both cruel and unkind. Besides, I had a first-rate break- fast, thank you. No such motive drew me into the kitchen. But I will tell you. You shall have it from my own lips. That was the reason ! " Ht suited the action to the word, and kissed her before she knew what was about to happen. At least, Yates, with all his experience, thought he had taken her unawares. Men often make mistakes in little matters of this kind. Kitty pushed him with apparent indignation from her, but she did not strike him across the face, as she had done before, when he merely attempted what he had now accomplished. Perhaps this was because she had been taken so completely by surprise. " I shall call my mother," she threatened. "Oh, no, you won't. Besides, she wouldn't come." Then this frivolous young man began to sing in a low voice the flippant refrain, " Here's to the girl that gets a kiss, and runs and tells her mother," ending with the wish that she should live and die an old maid and never get another.. Kitty should not have smiled, but she did ; she should have rebuked his levity, but she didn't. " It is about the great and disastrous consequences of living and dying an old maid that I want to speak to you. I have a plan for the prevention of such a catastrophe, and I would like to get your approval of it." Yates had released the girl, partly because she had wrenched herself away from him, and partly be- i m If i 1^ I v*:- rwi I ! m. t itii> li! 220 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS cause he heard a movement in the dining-room, and expected the entrance of Stoliker or some of the others. Kitty stood with her back to the table, her eyes fixed on a spring flower, which she had uncon- sciously taken from a vase standing on the window- ledge. She smoothed the petals this way and that, and seemed so much interested in botanical inves- tigation that Yates wondered whether she was paying attention to what he was saying or not. What his plan might have been can only be guessed ; for the Fates ordained that they should be interrupted at this critical moment by the one person on earth who could make Yates* tongue falter. The outer door to the kitchen burst open, and Margaret Howard stood on the threshold, her love:/ face aflame with indignation, and her dark hair down over her shoulders, forming a picture of beauty that fairly took Yates* breath away. She did not notice him. " O Kitty,** she cried, " those wretches have stolen all our horses ! Is your father here ? " "What wretches?" asked Kitty, ignoring the question, and startled by the sudden advent of her friend. " The Fenians. They have taken all the horses that were in the fields, and your horses as well. So I ran over to tell you." " Have they taken your own horse, too ? " " No. I always keep Gypsy in the stable. The thieves did not come near the house. Oh, Mr. Yates! I did not see you." And Margaret's hand, .li' IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 221 lorses So The Mr. hand, with the unconscious vanity of a woman, sought her dishevelled hair, which Yates thought too becoming ever to be put in order again. Margaret reddened as she realised, from Kitty's evident embarrassment, that she had impulsively broken in upon a conference of two. " I must tell your father about it," one said hur- riedly, and before Yates could open the door she had done so for herself. Again she was taken aback to see so many sitting round the table. There was a moment's silence between the two in the kitchen, but the spell was broken. " I- I don't suppose there will be any trouble about getting back the horses," said Yates hesitat- ingly. "If you lose them, the Government will have to pay." "I presume so," answered Kitty coldly; then: " Excuse me, Mr. Yates ; I mustn't stay here any longer." So saying, she followed Margaret into the other room. Yates drew a long breath of relief. All his old difficulties of preference had arisen when the outer door burst open. He felt that he had had a narrow escape, and began to wonder if he had really com- mitted himself. Then the fear swept over him that Margaret might have noticed her friend's evident confusion, and surmised its cause. He wondered whether this would help him or hurt him with Mar- garet, if he finally made up his mind to favour her with his serious attentions. Still, he reflected that, after all, they were both country girls, and would p m 1: \i f- I J.I'C. Ill lii i: 1 1 ' 'hi 1 ! 222 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS no doubt be only i.oo eager to accept a chance to live in New York. Thus hi:, mind gradually resumed its normal state of self-confidence; and he argued ihat, whatever Margaret's suspicions were, they could not but make him more precious in her eyes. He knew of instances where the very danger of losing a man had turned a woman's wavering mind entirely in that man's favour. When he had reached this point, the door from the dining-room opened, and Stoliker appeared. " We are waiting for you," said the constable. " All right. I am ready." As he entered the room he saw the two girls standing together talking earnestly. " I wish I was a constable for twenty-four hours," cried Mrs. Bartlett. " I would be hunting horse- thieves instead of handcuffing innocent men." " Come along," saidt he impassive Stoliker, taking the handcuffs from his pocket. " If you three men," continued Mrs. Bartlett, " cannot take these two to camp, or to jail, or any- where else, without handcuffing them, I'll go along with you myself and protect you, and see that they don't escape. You ought to be ashamed of your- self, Sam Stoliker, if you have any manhood about you — which I doubt." " I must do my duty." The professor rose from his chair. " Mr. Stoliker," he said with determination, " my friend and myself will go with you quietly. We will make no attempt to escape, as we have done nothing to make us fear IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 223 girls iker," nyself tempt fear investigation. But I give you fair warning that if you attempt to put a handcuff on my wrist again I will smash you." A cry of terror from one of the girls, at the pros- pect of a fight, caused the professor to realise where he was. He turned to them and said in a contrite voice : " Oh ! I forgot you were here. I sincerely beg your pardon." Margaret, with blazing eyes, cried : " Don't beg my pardon, but — smash him." Then a consciousness of what she had said over- came her, and the excited girl hid her blushing face on her friend's shoulder, while Kitty lovingly stroked her dark, tangled hair. Renmark took a step toward them, and stopped. Yates, with his usual quickness, came to the rescue, and his cheery voice relieved the tension of the situation. " Come, come, Stoliker, don't be an idiot. I do not object in the least to the handcuffs ; and if you are dying to handcuff somebody, handcuff me. It hasn't struck your luminous mind that you have not the first t'tle of evidence against my friend, and that, even if I were the greatest criminal in America, the fact of his being with me is no crime. The truth is, Stoliker, that I wouldn't be in your shoes for a good many dollars. You talk a great deal about doing your duty, but you have exceeded it in the case of the professor. I hope you have no property ; for the professor can, if he likes,, make you pay m 224 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS sweetly for putting the handcuffs on him without a warrant, or even without one jot of evidence. What is the penalty for false arrest, Hiram?" con- tinued Yates, suddenly appealing to the old man. " I think it is a thousand dollars." Hiram said gloomily that he didn't know. Stoliker was hit on a tender spot, for he owned a farm. " Better apologise to the professor and let us get along. Good-bye, all. Mrs. Bartlett, that breakfast was the very best I ever tasted." The good woman smiled and shook hands with him. " Good-bye, Mr. Yates ; and I hope you will soon come back to have another." Stoliker slipped the handcuffs into his pocket again and mounted his horse. The girls, from the veran- da, watched the procession move up the dusty road. They were silent, and had even forgotten the excit- ing event of the stealing of the horses. >ut a :nce. con- man. .Hker I. sget ikfast with soon again /eran- road. excit- CHAPT" XVII When the two prisoners, with their three cap- tors, came in sight of the Canadian volunteers, they beheld a scene which was much more military than the Fenian camp. They were promptly halted and questioned by a picket before coming to the main body ; the sentry knew enough not to shoot until he had asked for the countersign. Passing the picket, they came in full view of theCanadip.i force, the men of which looked very spick and span in uniforms which seemed painfully new in the clear light of the fair June morning. The guns, topped by a bristle of bayonets which glittered as the ris- ing sun shone on them, were stacked with neat pre- cision here and there. The men were preparing their breakfast, and a temporary halt had been called for that purpose. The volunteers were scattered by the side of the road and in the fields. Renmark recognised the colours of the regiment from his own city, and noticed that there was with it a company that was strange to him. Although led to the camp a pris- oner, he felt a glowing pride in the regiment and the trim appearance of the men — a pride that was both national and civic. He instinctively held himself more erect as he approached. IS ;:? ■P- II': i jj lit tt- i m A ' ^, m m B{ M'i 1 i m 1 I 226 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS " Renmark," said Yates, looking at him with a smile, ** you are making a thoroughly British mis- take " " What do you mean ? I haven't spoken." " No, but I see it in your eye. You are underesti- mating the enemy. You think this pretty company is going to walk over that body of unkempt tramps we saw in the woods this morning." " I do indeed, if the tramps wait to be walked over — which I very much doubt." " That's just where you make a mistake. Most of these are raw boys, who know all that can be learned of war on a cricket field. They will be the worst whipped set of young fellows before night that this part of the country has ever seen. Wait till they see one of their comrades fall, with the blood gush- ing out of a wound in his breast. If they don't turn and run, then I'm a Dutchman. I've seen raw re- cruits before. They should have a company of older men here who have seen service to steady them. The villains we saw this morning were sleeping like logs, in the damp woods, as we stepped over them. They are veterans. What will be but a mere skir- mish to them will seem to these boys the mosi awful tragedy that ever happened. Why, many of them look as if they might be university lads." " They are," said Renmark, with a pang of anguish. " Well, I can't see what your stupid government means by sending them here alone. They should have at least one company of regulars with them." Probably the regulars are on the way/ u >» IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 227 *t Perhaps ; but they will have to put in an appear, ance mighty sudden, or the fight will be over. If these boys are not in a hurry with their meal, the Fenians will be upon them before they know it. If there is to be a fight, it will be before a very few hours — before one hour passes, perhaps ; and you are going to see a miniature Bull Run." Some of the volunteers crowded round the in- comers, eagerly inquiring for news of the enemy. The Fenians had taken the precaution to cut all the telegraph wires leading out of Fort Erie, and hence those in command of the companies did not even know that the enemy had left that locality. The volunteers were now on their way to a point where they were to meet Colonel Peacocke's force of reg- ular — sa point which they were destined never to reach. Stoliker sought an officer and delivered up his prisoners, together with the incriminating paper that Yates had handed to him. The officer's decision was short and sharp, as military decisions are gener- ally supposed to be. He ordered the constable to take both the prisoners and put them in jail at Port Colborne. There was no time now for an inquiry into the case, — that could come afterward, — and, so long as the men were safe in jail, everything would be all right. To this the constable mildly interposed two objections. In the first place, he said, he was with the volunteers not in his capacity as constable, but in the position of guide and man who knew the country. In the second place, there was no jail at Port Colborne. 228 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS u\ u Where is the nearest jail ? " ; " The jail of the county is at Welland, the county town," replied the constable. " Very well ; take them there." " But I am here as guide," repeated Stoliker. The officer hesitated for a moment. " You haven't handcuffs with you, I presume ? " " Yes, I have," said Stoliker, producing the imple- ments. " Well, then, handcuff them together, and I will send one of the company over to Welland with them. How far is it across country ? " Stoliker told him. The officer called one of the volunteers, and said to him : " You are to make your way across country to Welland, and deliver these men up to the jailer there. They will be handcuffed together, but you take a revolver with you, and if they give you any trouble, shoot them." The volunteer reddened, and drev; himself up. " I am not a policeman," he said. " I am a soldier." " Very well, then, your first duty as a soldier is to obey orders. I order you to take these men to Welland." The volunteers had crowded round as this discus- sion went on, and a murmur rose among them at the order of the officer. They evidently sympathised with their comrade's objection to the duties of a policeman. One of them made his way through the crowd, and cried : up. f* IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 229 ** Hello ! this Is the professor. This is Mr. Ren- mark. He's no Fenian." Two or three more of the university students recognised Rcnmark, and, pushing up to him, greeted him warmly. He was evidently a favourite with his class. Among others young Howard pressed forward. " It is nonsense," he cried, " talking about send, ing Professor Renmark to jail ! He is no more a Fenian than Governor-General Monck. We'll all go bail for the professor." The officer wavered. " If you know him,'* he said, ** that is a difr( ent matter. But this other man has a letter from the commander of the Fenians, recom- mending him to the consideration of all friends of the Fenian cause. I can't let him go free." "Are you the chief in command here?" asked Renmark. " No, I am not." " Mr. Yates is a friend of mine who is here with me on his vacation. He is a New York journalist, and has nothing in common with the invaders. If you insist on sending him to Welland, I must de. mand that we be taken before the ofBcer in com- mand. In any case, he and I stand or fall to- gether. ^ am exactly as guilty or innocent as he is." " We can't bother the colonel about every trivial- ity." " A man's liberty is no triviality. What, in the name of common sense, are you fighting for but liberty?" ^•^.1 }::^ I -i/ ' yv I 230 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS " Thanks, Renmark, thanks,** said Yates ; " but I don't care to see the colonel, and I shall welcome Welland jail. I am tired of all this bother. I came here for rest and quiet, and I am going to have them, if I have to go to jail for them. I'm coming reluc- tantly to the belief that jail's the most comfortable place in Canada, anyhow.** " I'«ut this is an outrage,*' cried the professor in- dignantly. ** Of course it is,** replied Yates wearily ; *' the woods are full of them. There's always outrages going on, especially in so-called free countries ; there- fore one more or less won't make much difference. Come, officer, who's going to take me to Welland ? or shall I have to go by myself? I'm a Fenian from 'way back, and came here especially to overturn the throne and take it home with me. For Heaven's sake, know your own mind one way or other, and let us end this conference.** The officer was wroth. He speedily gave the order to Stoliker to har dcuff the prisoner to himself, and deliver him to the jailer at Welland. " But I want assistance," objected Stoliker. " The prisoner is a bigger man than I am.** The volun- teers laughed as Stoliker mentioned this solf-evident fact. "If anyone likes to go with you, he can go. I shall give no orders.** No one volunteered to accompany the constable. "Take this revolver with you," continued the ofHcer, " and if he attempts to escape, shoot him. IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 231 "The v1. Besides, you know the way to Welland, so I can't send anybody in your place, even if I wanted to.** " Howard knows the way," persisted Stoliker. That young man spoke up with great indignation : " Yes, but Howard isn't constable, and Stoliker is. Vm not going." Renmark went up to his friend. " Who's acting foolishly now, Yates ? " he said. " Why don't you insist on seeing the colonel ? The chances are ten to one that you would be allowed ofif.** " Don't make any mistake. The colonel will very likely be some fussy individual who magnifies his own importance, and who will send a squad of volunteers to escort me, and I want to avoid that. These officers always stick by each other ; they're bound to. I want to go alone with Stoliker. I have a score to settle with him." " Now, don't do anything rash. You've done nothing so far ; but if you assault an officer of the law, that will be a different matter." " Satan reproving sin. Who prevented you from hitting Stoliker a short time since ? " " Well, I was wrong then. You are wrong now." " See here, Renny," whispered Yates, " you get back to the tent, and see that everything's all right. I'll be with you in an hour or so. Don't look so frightened, I won't hurt Stoliker. But I want to see this fight, and I won't get there if the colonel sends an escort. I'm going to use Stoliker as a shield when the bullets begin flying." ' !■ •- Si :!i ii *: i:.: .'^'jll (:■] 232 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS The bugles sounded for the troops to fall in, and Stoliker very reluctantly attached one clasp of the handcuff around his own left wrist, while he snapped the other on the right wrist of Yates, who embar* rassed him with kindly assistance. The two man- acled men disappeared down the road, while the volunteers rapidly fell in to continue theif morning's march. Young Howard beckoned to the professor from his place in the ranks. " I say, professor, how did you happen to be down this way ? " " I have been camping out here for a week or more with Yates, who is an old schoolfellow of mine." " What a shame to have him led off in that way I But he seemed rather to like the idea. Jolly fellow, I should say. How I wish I had known you were in this neighbourhood. My folks live near here. They would only have been too glad to be of assist- ance to you." " They have been of assistance to me, and ex- ceedingly kind as well." " What ? You know them ? All of them ? Have you met Margaret ? " " Yes," said the professor slowly, but his glance fell as it encountered the eager eyes of the youth. It was evident that Margaret was the brother's favourite. " Fall back, there ! " cried the officer to Renmark. " May I march along with them ? or can you give me a gun, and let me take part ? " IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 233 in, and » of the napped embar- o man* lile the 3rning*s or from low did veek Of How of at way ! r fellow, r>u were ir here, assist- md ex- Have glance youth, ■other's nmark. )u give " No," said the officer with some hauteur ; " this is no place for civilians." Again the professor smiled as he reflected that the whole company, as far as martial experience went, were merely civilians dressed in uniform ; but he became grave again when he remembered Yates' ominous prediction re- garding them. " I say, Mr. Renmark," cried young Howard, as the company moved off, " if you see any of them, don't tell them I'm here — especially Margaret. It might make them uneasy. 1*11 get leave when this is over, and drop in on them." The boy spoke with the hopeful confidence of youth, and had evidently no premonition of how his appointment would be kept. Renmark left the road, and struck across country in the direction of the tent. Meanwhile, two men were tramping steadily along the dusty road toward Welland : the captor moody and silent, the prisoner talkative and entertaining — indeed, Yates' conversation often went beyond en- tertainment, and became, at times, instructive. He discussed the affairs of both countries, showed a way out of all political difficulties, gave reasons for the practical use of common sense in every emergency, passed opinions on the methods of agriculture adopted in various parts of the country, told stories of the war, gave instances of men in captivity mur- dering those who were in charge of them, deduced from these anecdotes the foolishness of resisting lawful authority lawfully exercised, and, in general. I ! \' r 'V I' ii i \ lii li 1 1 u < iti .;' 234 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS "howed that he was a man who respected power and the exercise thereof. Suddenly branching to more practical matters, he exclaimed : " Say, Stoliker, how many taverns are there be- tween here and Welland ? " Stoliker had never counted them. " Well, that's encouraging, anyhow. If there are so many that it requires an effort of the memory to enumerate them, we will likely have something to drink before long." " I never drink while on duty,'* said Stoliker curtly. " Oh, well, don't apologize for it. Every man has his failings. I'll be only too happy to give you some instruction. I have acquired the useful prac- tice of being able to drink both on and off duty. Anything can be done, Stoliker, if you give your mind to it. I don't believe in the word 'can't,* either with or without the mark of elision." Stoliker did not answer, and Yates yawned vearily. " I wish you would hire a rig, constable. I'm tired of walking. I've been on my feet ever since three this morning." I have no authority to hire a buggy." But what do you do when a prisoner refuses to move ? ** " I make him move,** said Stoliker shortly. " Ah, I see. That's a good plan, and saves bills at the livery stable.** They came to a tempting bank by the roadside, when Yates cried : « « &:>■ ^ V ! ire there be- If there are £ memory to omething to said Stoliker very man has to give you ; useful prac- md off duty. )u give your word * can't/ ned vearily. stable. I'm ;t ever since ir refuses to [he roadside, "HERE, SIT UP, HE SAID GRUFFLY " — Pdg^ 235 i 1 m\ m m m 6 i in; 242 IN THE MiDST OF ALARMS tinueu in a milder tone, " could you tell me where to get a file, so that I may cut these wrist ornaments ? Don't you get it. You are to do nothing. Just in- dicate where the file is. The law mustn't have any hold on you, as it seems to have on me." " Why don't you make him unlock them ? ** asked Kitty. " Because the villain threw away the key in the fields." " He couldn't have done that." The constable caught his breath. " But he did. I saw him." " And I saw him unlock them at breakfast. The key was on the end of his watch chain. He hasn't thrown that away." She made a move to take out his watch chain but Yates stopped her. " Don't touch him. I'm playing a lone hand here." He jerked out the chain, and the real key dangled from it. " Well, Stoliker," he said, " I don't know which to admire most — your cleverness and pluck, my stu- pidity, or Miss Bartlett's acuteness of observation. Can we get into the barn, Kitty ? " " Yes; but you mustn't hurt him." " No fear. I think too much of him. Don't you come in. I'll be out in a moment, like the medium from a spiritualistic dark cabinet." Entering the barn, Yates forced the constable up against the square oaken post which was part of the framework of the building, and which formed one IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 243 side of the perpendicular ladder that led to the top of the hay-mow. " Now, Stoliker," he said solemnly, " you realise, of course, that I don't want to hurt you ; yet you also realise that I must hurt you if you attempt to play tricks. I can't take any risks, please remember that; and recollect that, by the time you are free again, I shall be in the State of New York. So don't compel me to smash your head against this post." He, with some trouble, unlocked the clasp on his own wrist ; then, drawing Stoliker's right hand around the post, he snapped the same clasp on the constable's hitherto free wrist. The unfortunate man, with his cheek against the oak, was in the comical position of lovingly embracing the post. " I'll get you a chair from the kitchen, so that you will be more comfortable — unless, like Samson, you can pull down the supports. Then I must bid you good-bye." Yates went out to the girl, who was waiting for him. " I want to borrow a kitchen chair, Kitty," he said, " so that poor Stoliker will get a rest." They walked toward the house. Yates noticed that the firing had ceased, except a desultory shot here and there across the country. *' I shall have to retreat over the border as quickly as I can," he continued. ** This country is getting too hot for me." "You are much safer here," said the girl, with downcast eyes. " A man has brought the news that < > I m m I )-r,i^^ Or ^' 1 1 lll'l 244 IN THE MIDST OF ALAR.vIS the United States gunboats are sailing up and down the river, making prisoners of all who attempt to cross from this side." " You don't say ! Well, I might have known that. Then what am I to do with Stoliker ? I can't keep him tied up here. Yet the moment he gets loose I'm done for." " Perhaps mother could persuade him not to do anything more. Shall I go for her ? " " I don't think it would be of any use, Stoliker*s a stubborn animal. He has suffered too much at my hands to be in a forgiving mood. We'll bring him a chair, anyhow, and see the effect of kindness on him." When the chair was placed at Stoliker's disposal, he sat down upon it, still hugging the post with an enforced fervency that, in spite of the solemnity of the occasion, nearly made Kitty laugh, and lit up her eyes with the mischievousness that had always delighted Yates. " How long am I to be kept here ? " asked the constable. " Oh, not long,** answered Yates cheerily ; " not a moment longer than is necessary. I'll telegraph when I'm safe in New York State ; so you won't be here more than a day or two." This assurance did not appear to bring much comfort to Stoliker. " Look here," he said ; " I guess I know as well as the next man when I'm beaten. I have been thinking all this over. I am under the sheriff's iii; IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 245 orders, and not under the orders of that officer. I don't believe you've done anything, anyhow, or you wouldn't have acted quite the v/ay you did. If the sheriff had sent me, it would have been different. As it is, if you unlock those cuffs, I'll give you my word I'll do nothing more unless I'm ordered to. Like as not they've forgotten all about you by this time ; and there's nothing on record, anyhow," " Do you mean it ? Will you act square ? ** " Certainly I'll act square. I don't suppose you doubt that. I didn't ask any favours before, and I did what I could to hold you." " Enough said," cried Yates. " I'll risk it." Stoliker stretched his arms wearily above his head when he was released. " I wonder," he said, now that Kitty was gone, " if there is anything to eat in the house ? " " Shake ! " cried Yates, holding out his hand to him. " Another great and mutual sentiment unites us, Stoliker. Let us go and see." I til m m t i-. m' ! i m lii;; jfi I! CHAPTER XVIII The man who wanted to sec the fij^ht did not sec it, and tl)c man who did not want to see it saw it. Yates arrived on the field of conflict when all was over; Rcnmark found the battle rajjinjj around him before he realised that things had reached a crisis. When Yates reached the tent, he found it empty and torn by bullets. The fortunes of war had smashed the jar, and the fragments were strewn be- fore the entrance, probably by some disappointed man who had tried to sample the contcn^^s ;'nd had found nothing. " Hang it all ! " said Yates to himself, " i "u t what the five assistants that the Arj^us sent n,s. 'c done with themselves? If they arc with the • c- nians, beating a retreat, or, worse, if they are cap- tured by the Canadians, they won't be able to get an account of this scrimmage through to the paper. Now, this is evidently the biggest item of the year — it's international, by George I It may involve England and the United Stales in a war, if both sides are not f^xtra mild and cautious. I can't run the chance of the paper being left in the lurch. Let me think a minute. Is it my t'p to follow the 346 IN Till': MIDST OK AT, ARMS 347 lid not it saw hen all around ached a : empty nxr had 2wn bc- pointed nd had - r 1m. 'C the . c- irc cap- to get paper, ic year involve if both in't run J lurch, ow the Canadians or the l^'cnlanM? I wonder which In run- nln^f the fiisler? My men are cviui version would be a ^;ood tiling;, if I were sure tin* rest of the boys ^ot in their work, and tin; t hance t arc that the other papers won't have any report nn amon({ the ('anucks. Heavens I What is a man to do? I'll toss up for it. Heads, the l*'enians." He spun the coitt in the air, and cau^^ht it. " Heads it is! The I'enians are my victims. I'm camping on their trail, anyhow. Beside, it'n safer than following the Canadians, even though .Stoliker has got my pass." Tired as he was, lie stepped !)rlskly through the forest. The scent of a !>ig item was in his nontrils, and it stimulated him like cham{)agne. What waf the retreating army. They had thrown away, as they passed through the woods, every article that iiri- peded their progress. Once he camr; o»i a man lying with his face in the dead leaves. '^^ ♦ur»ied him over. " His troubles are past, poor as he pushed on. M said Yatci, I 1* w i M i "^i:: *■•*■ m. i I'! '0 3 i !l 248 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS " Halt I Throw up your hands ! " came a cry from in front of him. Yates saw no one, but he promptly threw up his hands, being ?.n ddaptable man. " What's the trouble ? " he shouted. " I'm re- treating, too." " Then retreat five steps farther. I'll count the steps. One." Yates strode one step forward, and then saw that a man behind a tree was covering him with a gun. The next step revealed a second captor, with a huge upraised hammer, like a Hercules with his club. Both men had blackened laces, and resembled thor- oughly disreputable fiends of the forest. Seated on the ground, in a semicircle, were half a dozen de- jected prisoners. The man with the gun swore fear- fully, but his comrade with the hammer was silent. " Come," said the marksman, ** you blank scoun- drel, and take a seat with your fellow-scoundrels. If you attempt to run, blank blank you, I'll fill you full of buckshot ! " " Oh, I'm not going to run, Sandy," cried Yates, recognising him. " Why should I ? I've always en- joyed your company, and Macdonald's. How are you, Mac? Is this a little private raid of your own? For which side are you fighting? And I say, Sandy, what's the weight of that old-fashioned bar of iron you have in your hands ? I'd like to decide a bet. Let me heft it, as you said in the shop." Oh, it's you, is it ?" said Sandy in a disap* « }L i •m IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 249 poined tone, lowering his gun. "I thought we had raked in another of them. The old man and I want to make it an even dozen." " Well, I don't think you'll capture any more. I saw nobody as I came through the woods. What are you going to do with this crowd ? ** " Brain *em," said Macdonald laconically, speak- ing for the first time. Then he added reluctantly : " If any of 'em tries to escape." The prisoners were all evidently too tired and despondent to make any attempt at regaining their liberty. Sandy winked over Macdonald's shoulder at Yates, and by a slight side movement of his head he seemed to indicate that he would like to have some private conversation with the newspaper man. " I'm not your prisoner, am I ? " asked Yates. " No," said Macdonald. " You may go if you like, but not in the direction the Fenians have gone." " I guess I won't need to go any farther, if you will give me permission to interview your prisoners. I merely want to get some points about the fight." " That's all right," said the blacksmith, " as long as you don't try to help them. If you do, I warn you there will be trouble." Yates followed Sandy into the depths of the forest, out of hearing of the others, leaving Macdonald and his sledge-hammer on guard. When at a safe distance, Sandy stopped and rested his arms on his gun, in a pathfinder attitude. " Say," he began anxiously, " you haven't got some powder and shot on you by any chance ? " II i Ml I- ^ ;• i i m in 1; i 250 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS " Not an ounce. Haven't you any ammunition ? ** " No, and haven't had all through the fight. You see, we !et"t the shop in such a hurry we never li'cug :c about powder and ball. As soon as a man on b ; > 1. ' ack came by shouting that there was a fight on, i) ri oK* nan he grabbed his sledge, and I took this gun that .lad been left at the shop for repairs, and off we started. I'm not sure that it would shoot if I had ammunition, but I'd like to try. I've scared some of them Fee-neens nigh to death with it, but I was always afraid one of them would pull a real gun on me, and then I don't know just what I'd *a* done." Sandy sighed, and added, with the air of a man who saw his mistake, but was somewhat loath to ac« knowledge it : " Next battle there is you won't find me in it with a lame gun and no powder, I'd sooner have the old man's sledge. It don't miss fire." His eye brightened as he thought of Macdonald. " Say," he continued, with a jerk of his head back over his shoulder, " the boss is on the warpath in great style, ain't he?" " He is," said Yates, " but, for that matter, so are you. You can swear nearly as well ss Macdonald himself. When did you take to it ? " " Oh, well, you see," said Sandy apologetically, " it don't come as natural to me as chewing, but, then, somebody's got to swear. The old man's con- verted, you know." " Ah, hasn't he backslid yet ? " " No, he hasn't. I was afraid this scrimmage was IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 251 going to do for him, but it didn't ; and now I think that if somebody near by does a little cussing, — not that anyone can cuss like the boss, —he'll pull through. I think he'll stick this time. You'd ought to have seen him wading into them d — d Fee-neens, swinging his sledge, and singing * Onward, Christian soldiers.* Then, with me to chip in a cv . \. ^*-d now and again when things got hot, he puilod rough the day without ripping an oath. I tcii ^,'ou, it was a sight. He bowled 'em over like nint p is. You ought to V been there." " Yes," said Yates regretfully. " ( iv^iased it, all on account of that accursed Stoliker. Well, there's no use crying over spilled milk, but I'll tell you one thing, Sandy: although I have no ammunition, I'll let you know what I have got. I have, in my pocket, one of the best plugs of tobacco that you ever put your teeth into." Sandy's eyes glittered. " Bless you ! " was all he could say, as he bit off a corner of the offered plug. " You see, Sandy, there are compensations in this life, after all ; I thought you were out." " I haven't had a bite all day. That's the trouble with leaving in a hurry." " Well, you may keep that plug with my regards. Now, I want to get back and interview those fellows. There's no time to be lost." When they reached the group, Macdonald said : " Here's a man says he knows you, Mr. Yates. He claims he is a reporter, and that you will vouch for him." .J l' I i I' Iff] IP 1 n, t ii « I; ill I HIM " . i ' 252 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS Yates strode forward, and looked anxiously at the prisoners, hoping, yet fearing, to find one of his own men there. He was a selfish man, and wanted the glory of the day to be all his own. He soon recog- nised one of the prisoners as Jimmy Hawkins of the staff of a rival daily, the New York Blade* This was even worse than he had anticipated. "Hello, Jimmy 1" he said, "how did you get here ? " " I was raked in by that adjective fool with the unwashed face.** " Who's a fool?" cried Macdonald in wrath, grasping his hammer. He boggled slightly as he came to the " adjective," but got over it safely. It was evidently a close call, but Sandy sprang to the rescue, and cursed Hawkins until even the prisoners turned pale at the torrent of profanity. Macdonald looked with sad approbation at his pupil, not know- ing that he was under the stimulus of newly-acquired tobacco, wondering how he had attained such profi- ciency in malediction ; for, like all true artists, he was quite unconscious of his own merit in that direction. " Tell this hammer wielder that I'm no anvil. Tell him that I'm a newspaperman, and didn't come here to fight. He says that if you guarantee that I'm no Fenian he'll let me go." Yates sat down on a fallen log, with a frown on his brow. He liked to do a favour to a fellow-crea- ture when the act did not inconvenience himself, but he never forgot the fact that business was business. I can't conscientiously tell him that, Jimmy," « lit! ; IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 253 sly at the f his own nted the on recog- ns of the This was you get with the in wrath, tly as he afely. It tig to the prisoners [acdonald lot know- acquired uch profi- ts, he was direction, vil. Tell ome here at I'm no rown on low-crea- nriself, but Dusiness. Jimmy," said Yates soothingly. " How am I to know you are not a Fenian?" " Bosh ! " cried Hawkins angrily. " Conscien* tiously? A lot you think of conscience when there is an item to be had." " We none of us live up to our better nature, Jimmy," continued Yates feelingly. " We can but do our best, which is not much. For reasons that you might fail to understand, I do not wish to run the risk of telling a lie. You appreciate my hesitation, don't you, Mr. Macdonald ? You would not advise me to assert a thing I was not sure of, would you ? " " Certainly not," said the blacksmith earnestly. " You want to keep me here because you are afraid of me," cried the indignant j5/ure that I won't meet any more newspaper men, let us call it one hundred dollar!^, and I'll take the risk of the odd fifty for th^ ready cai.' ; then if I me-^t a dozen newspaper men, I A teii them I'm a telegraph boy on a vacation." *' Quite so. I think you will be able to take care of yourself in a cold and callous world. Now, look here, young man ; I'll trust you if you'll trust me. I'm not a traveling mint, you know. Besides, I pay by results. If you don't get this despatch through, you don't get anything. I'll give you an order for a hundred dollars, and as soon as I get to Buffalo I'll pay you the cash. I'll have to draw on the Argui when I ijet to Buffalo ; if my article has appeared, you get your cash ; if it I .asn't, you're out. See ? ** IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 261 «* Yes, I see. It won't do, Mr. Yates." « Why won't it do ? " "Because I say it won't. This is a cash trans- action. Money down, or you don't get the goods. I'll get it through all right, but if I just miss, I'm not going to lose the money." " Very well, I'll take it to the Canadian telegraph office." '• All right, Mr. Yates. I'm disappointed in you. I thought you were some good. You ain't got no sense, but I wish you luck. When I was at your tent, there was a man with a hammer taking a lot of men out of the woods. When one of them sees my uniform, he sings out he'd give me twenty-five dd lars to take his stuff. I ^aid I'd see him later, anc I will. Good-bye, Mr. Yates." " Hold on, there ! You're a young villain. You'll end in state's prison yet, but here's your money. Now, you ride like a house a-fire." After watching the departing boy until he was out of sight Yates, with a feeling of relief, jc eyed back to the tent. He was worried about tl _ interview the boy had had with Hawkins, and he wondered, now that it was too late, whether, aft -r all, he had not Hawkins* manuscript in his pocl^ t He wished he had searched him. That trouble, however, did not prevent him from sleeping like the dead the mo- ment he flung himself down on his cot. .sill i ii CHAPTER XIX The result of the struggle was similar in effect to an American railway accident of the first class. One officer and five privates were killed on the Canadian side, one man was missing, and many were wounded. The number of the Fenians killed will probably never be known. Several were buried on the field of battle, others wer taken back by O'Neill's brig- ade when they retreated. Although the engagement ended as Yates had pre- dicted, yet he was wrong in his estimate of the Canadi ins. Volunteers are invariably underrated bj men of experience in military matters. The boys fought well, even when they saw their ensign fall dead before them. If the affair had been left en- tirely in their hands, the result might have been different — as was shown afterward, when the volun- teers, unimpeded by regulars, quickly put down a much more formidable rising in the Northwest. But in the present case they were hampered by their de- pendence on the British troops, whose commander moved them with all the ponderous slowness of real war, and approached O'Neill as if he had been ap- proaching Napoleon. He thus managed to get in a 262 I I iiii: 111. IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 263 ffect to s. One madian )unded. robably be field 's brig- lad pre- of the lerrated le boys [gn fall left en- e been : volun- lown a t. But leir de- mander of real een ap- :et in a day after the fair on every occasion, being too late for the fight at Ridgeway, and too late to capture any considerable number of the flying Fenians at Fort Erie. The campaign, on the Canadian side, was magnificently planned and wretchedly carried out. The volunteers and regulars were to meet at a point close to the spot the fight took place, but the British commander delayed two hours in starting, which fact the Canadian colonel did not learn until too late. These blunders culminated in a ghastly mistake on the field. The Canadian colonel ordered his men to charge across an open field, and attack the Fenian force in the woods — a brilliant but fool- ish move. To the command the volunteers gal- lantly responded, but against stupidity the gods are powerless. In the field they were appialled to hear the order given to form square and receive cavalry. Even the schoolboys knew the Fenians could have no cavalry. Having formed their square, the Canadians found themselves the helpless targets of the Fenians in the woods. If O'Neill's forces had shot with reasonable precision, they must have cut the volunteers to pieces. The latter were victorious, if they had only known it ; but, in this hopeless square, panic seized them, and it was every man for himself ; at the same time, the Fenians were also retreating as fast as they could. This farce is known as the battle of Ridge- way, and would have been comical had it not been that death hovered over it. The comedy, without the tragedy, was enacted a day or two before at a § m HI ^m m fi ■!!;! ft ' •^ i.ii I I |ij ii:l!iS:: m 264 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS bloodless skirmish which took place near a hamlet called Waterloo, which affray is dignified in Cana- dian annals as the second battle of that name. When the Canadian forces retreated, Renmark, who had watched the contest with all the helpless anxiety of a noncombatant, sharing the danger, but having no influence upon the result, followed them, making a wide detour to avoid the chance shots which were still flying. He expected to come up with the volunteers on the road, but failed to do so. Through various miscalculations he did not succeed in finding them until toward evening. At first they told him that young Howard was with the company, and unhurt, but further inquiry soon disclosed the fact that he had not been seen since the fight. He was not among those who were killed or wounded, and it was nightfall before Renmark realised that opposite his name on the roll would be placed the ominous word " missing." Renmark remembered that the boy had said he would visit his home if he got leave ; but no leave had been asked for. At last Renmark was convinced that young Howard was either badly wounded or dead. The possibility of his desertion the professor did not consider for a moment, although he admitted to himself that it was hard to tell what panic of fear might come over a boy who, for the first tf.me in his life, found bullets flying about his ears. With a heavy heart Renmark turned back ^nd made his way to the fatal field. He found nothing on the Canadian side. Going over to the woods, he IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 265 hamlet Cana- • nmark, Lelpless [er, but 1 them, e shots }me up > do so. succeed St they mpany, sed the It. He >unded, pd that ced the mbered le if he 3r. At toward sibility er for a that it He over bullets ck ^nd lothing ods, he came across several bodies lying where they fell ; but they were all those of strangers. Even in the dark- ness he would have had no difficulty in recognising the volunteer uniform which he knew so well. He walked down to the Howard homestead, hoping, yet fearing, to hear the boy's voice — the voice of a de- serter. Everything was silent about the house, al- though a light shone through an upper window, and also through one below. He paused at the gate, not knowing what to do. It was evident the boy was not here, yet how to find the father or brother, without alarming Margaret or her mother, puzzled him. As he stood there the door opened, and he recognised Mrs. Bartlett and Margaret standing in the light. He moved away from the gate, and heard the older woman say : " Oh, she will be all right in the morning, now that she has fallen into a nice sleep. I wouldn't disturb her to-night, if I were you. It is nothing but nervousness and fright at that horrible firing. It's all over now, thank God. Good-night, Margaret." The good woman came through the gate, and then ran, with all the speed of sixteen, toward her own home. Margaret stood in the doorway, listen- ing to the retreating footsteps. She was pale and anxious, but Renmark thought he had never seen anyone so lovely ; and he was startled to find that he had a most un-professor-like longing to take her in his arms and comfort her. Instead of bringing her consolation, he feared it would be his fate to add to her anxiety ; and it was not until he saw she 1 1 If, 266 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS '*v i: ;■ was about to close the door that he found courage to speak. " Margaret," he said. The girl had never heard her name pronounced in that tone before, and the cadence of it went direct to her heart, frightening her with an unknown joy. She seemed unable to move or respond, and stood there, with wide eyes and suspended breath, gazing into the darkness. Renmark stepped into the light, and she saw his face was haggard with fatigue and anxiety. " Margaret," he said again, " I want to speak with you a moment. Where is your brother?" " He has gone with Mr. Bartlett to see if he can find the horses. There is something wrong," she continued, stepping down beside him. " I can see it in your face. What is it ? " " Is your father in the house ? " " Yes, but he is worried about mother. Tell me what it is. It is better to tell me." Renmark hesitated. " Don't keep me in suspense like this," cried the girl in a low but intense voice. " You have said too much or too little. Has anything happened to Henry?" " No. It is about Arthur I wanted to speak. You will not be alarmed ? " " I am alarmed. Tell me quickly." And the girl in her excitement laid her hands imploringly on his, " Arthur joined the volunteers in Toronto some time ago. Did you know that ? " m. IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 267 courage unced in It direct own joy. id stood 1, gazing the light, igue and leak with if he can ng, she [ can see Tell me cried the said too )ened to ik. You the girl y on his, ito some " He never told me. I understand — I think so, but I hope not. He was in the battle to-day. Is he — has he been — hurt ? " " I don't know. I'm afraid so," said Renmark hurriedly, now that the truth had to come out ; he realised, by the nervous tightening of the girl's un- conscious grasp, how clumsily he was telling it. " He was with the volunteers this morning. He is not with them now. They don't know where he is. No one saw him hurt, but it is feared he was, and that he has been left behind. I have been all over the ground." "Yes, yes?" " But I could not find him. I came here hoping to find him." " Take me to where the volunteers were," she sobbed. " I know what has happened. Come quickly." " Will you not put something on your head ? " " No, no. Come at once." Then, pausing, she said : " Shall we need a lantern ? " " No ; it is light enough when we get out from the shadow of the house/' Margaret ran along the road so swiftly that Ren- mark had some trouble in keeping pace with her. She turned at the side road, and sped up the gentle ascent to the spot where the volunteers had crossed it. " Here is the place," said Renmark. " He could not have been hit in the field," she cried breathlessly, " for then he might have reached -f.ss.''' IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 1.1 11.25 ■SO "^^ RI^H Vi l&i 12.2 ^ m ^^ ^ us 112.0 1.4 1.6 -^ Hiotographic Sciences Corporation d '^ \ «^ ^\ V ^'^ ^ \. ^Pk\ ^-^^ "^.^ 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 ,<^ >^ ^ \%^^ ^^^ % ^ '' ii I I .-■■■* ■ « It ' 268 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS the house at the corner without climbing a fence. If he was badly hurt, he would have been here. Did you search this field ? ** " Every bit of it. He is not here." ** Then it must have happened after he crossed the road and the second fence. Did you see the battle ? '* "Yes." ** Did the Fenians cross the field after the volun- teers?" No ; they did not leave the woods." Then, if he was struck, it could not have been far from the other side of the second fence. He would be the last to retreat ; and that is why the others did not see him/' said the girl, with confident pride in her brother's courage. They crossed the first fence, the road, and the second fence, the girl walking ahead for a few paces. She stopped, and leaned for a moment against a tree. " It must have been about here," she said in a voice hardly audible. " Have you searched on this side ? " " Yes, for half a mile farther into the fields and woods." " No, no, not there ; but down along the fence. He knew every inch of this ground. If he were wounded here, he would at once try to reach our house. Search down along the fence. I — I cannot go- Renmark walked along the fence, peering into the dark corners made by the zigzag of the rails ; and he knew, without looking back, that Margaret, with r a fence, ere. Did rossed the e battle?" the volun- have been eiice. He 3 why the 1 confident d, and the I few paces. : against a le said in a ed on this 6elds and the fence, f he were reach our —I cannot ig into the rails ; and garet, with I i ; 4 1 !| > 1 FLUNG HERSELF DOWN IN THE LON(; C,RASS."~-Pjge 269 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 269 4. r feminine inconsistency, was following him. Sud- denly she darted past him, and flung herself down in the long grass, wailing out a cry that cut Renmark like a knife. The boy lay with his face in the grass, and his outstretched hand grasping the lower rail of the fence. He had dragged himself this far, and reached an in- surmountable obstacle. Renmark drew the weeping girl gently away, and rapidly ran his hand over the prostrate lad. He quickly opened his tunic, and a thrill of joy passed over him as he felt the faint beating of the heart. " He is alive I ** he cried. " He will get well, Margaret." A statement somewhat premature to make on so hasty an examination. He rose, expecting a look of gratitude from the girl he loved. He was amazed to see her eyes al- most luminous in the darkness, blazing with wrath. "When did you know he was with the volun- teers?" " This morning — early," said the professor, taken aback. " Why didn't you tell me ? " "He asked me not to do so." " He is a mere boy. You are a man, and ought to have a man's sense. You had no right to mind what a boy said. It was my right to know, and your duty to tell me. Through your negligence and stupidity my brother has lain here all day — per- haps dying," she added with a break in her angry voice. ■■r^ villi : :il ■'i «i I i:, m 'I 270 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS ur across e will be if I were IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 285 you, I would get over to the other side ; though you need never say I told you. Of course, if they give the warrant to me, I shall have to arrest you ; and although nothing may be done to you, still, the country is in a state of excitement, and you will at least be put to some inconvenience." " Stoliker," cried Yates, springing out of the ham- mock, •' you are a white man ! You're a good follow, Stoliker, and I'm ever so much obliged. If you ever come to New York, you call on me at the Argus office, — anybody will show you where it is, — and I'll give you the liveliest time you ever had in your life. It won't cost you a cent, either." " That's all right," said the constable. " Now, if I were you, I would light >iit to-morrow at the latest." " I will," said Yates. Stoliker disappeared quietly among the trees, and Yates, after a moment's thought, began energetically to pack up his belongings. It was dark before he had finished, and Renmark returned. " Stilly," cried the reporter cheerily, " there's a warrant out for my arrest. I shall have to go to- morrow at the latest ! " " What ! to jail ? " cried his horrified friend, his conscience now troubling him, as the parting came, for his lack of kindness to an old comrade. " Not if the court knows herself. But to Buffalo, which is pretty much the same thing. Still, thank goodness, I don't need to stay there long. I'll be in New York before I'm many days older. I yearn '■IT 286 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS to plunge into the arena once more. The still, calm peacefulness of this whole vacation has made me long for excitement again, and I'm glad the warrant has pushed me into the turmoil." " Well, Richard, I'm sorry you have to go under such conditions. I'm afraid I have not been as companionable a comrade as you should have had." " Oh, you're all right, Renny. The trouble with you is that you have drawn a little circle around Toronto University, and said to yourself : * This is the world.* It isn't, you know. There is something outside of all that." " Every man, doubtless, has his little circle. Yours is around the Argus office." " Yes, but there are special wires from that centre to all the rest of the world, and soon there will be an Atlantic cable." " I do not hold that my circle is as large as yours; still, there is something outside of New York, even.** " You bet your life there is ; and, now that you are in a more sympathetic frame of mind, it is that I want to talk with you about. Those two girls are outside my little circle, and I want to bring one of them within it. Now, Renmark, which of those girls would you choose if you were me ? " The professor drew in his breath sharply, and was silent for a moment. At last he said, speaking slowly : " I am afraid, Mr. Yates, that you do not quite ap< preciate my point of view. As you may think I IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 287 rhe still, tias made glad the go under : been as ave had." uble with le around : 'This is lomething ic. Yours hat centre will be an as yours; ew York, that you it is that two girls [bring one of those , and was speaking quite ap- |y think I have acted in an unfriendly manner, I will try for the first and final time to explain it. I hold that any man who marries a good woman gets more than he deserves, no matter how worthy he may be. I have a profound respect ' )r all women, and I think that your light chatter about choosing between two is an insult to both of them. I think either of them is infinitely too good for you — or for me either." " Oh, you do, do you ? Perhaps you think that you would make a much better husband than I. If that is the case, allow me to say you are entirely wrong. If your wife was sensitive, you would kill her with your gloomy fits. I wouldn't go off in the woods and sulk, anyhow." "If you are referring to me, I will further inform you that I had either to go off in the woods or knock you down. I chose the less of two evils." "Think you could do it, I suppose? Renny, you're conceited. You're not the first man who has made such a mistake, and found he was barking up the wrong tree when it was too late for anything but bandages and arnica." " I have tried to show you how I feel regarding this matter. I might have known I should not suc- ceed. We will end the discussion, if you please." " Oh, no. The discussion is just beginning. Now, Renny, I'll tell you what you need. You need a good, sensible wife worse than any man I know. It is not yet too late to save you, but it soon will be. You will, before long, grow a crust on you like a snail, or a lobster, or any other cold-blooded animal I 288 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS that gets a shell on itself. Then nothing can be done for you. Now, let me save you, Renny, before it is too late. Here is my proposition : You choose one of those girls and marry her. I'll take the other. I'm not as unselfish as I may seem in this, for your choice will save me the worry of making' up my own mind. According to your talk, either of the girls is too good for you, and for once I entirely agree with you. But let that pass. Now, which one is it to be?" " Good God ! man, do you think I'm going to bar- gain with you about my future wife ? ** " That's right, Renny. I like to hear you swear. It shows you are not yet the prig you would have folks believe. There's still hope for you, professor. Now, I'll go further with you. Although I cannot make up my mind just what to do myself, I can tell instantly which is the girl for you, and thus we solve both problems at one stroke. You need a wife who will take you in hand. You need one who will not put up with your tantrums, who will be cheerful, and who will make a man of you. Kitty Bartlett is the girl. She will tyrannise over you, just as her mother does over the old man. She will keep house to the queen's taste, and delight in getting you good things to eat. Why, everything is as plain as a pikestaff. That shows the benefit of talking over a thing. You marry Kitty and I'll mary Margaret. Come, let's shake hands over it." Yates held up his right hand, ready to slap it down on the open palm of the pro- fessor, but there was no response. Yates' hand came IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 289 down to his side again, but he had not yet lost the enthusiasm of his proposal. The more he thought of it the more fitting it seemed. " Margaret is such a sensible, quiet, level-headed girl that, if I am as flippant as you say, she will be just the wife for me. There are depths in my char- acter, Renmark, that you have not suspected." " Oh, you're deep." " I admit it. Well, a good, sober-minded woman would develop the best that is in me. Now, what do you say, Renny ? " " I say nothing. I am going into the woods again, dark as it is." " Ah, well," said Yates with a sigh, " there's no doing anything with you or for you. I've tried my best ; that is one consolation. Don't go away. I'll let fate decide. Here goes for a toss-up." And Yates drew a silver half-dollar from his pocket. " Heads for Margaret ! " he cried. Renmark clinched his fist, took a step forward, then checked himself, remembering that this was his last night with the man who had at least once been his friend. Yates merrily spun the coin in the air, caught it in one hand, and slapped the other over it. " Now for the turning point in the lives of two in- nocent beings." He raised the covering hand, and peered at the coin in the gathering gloom. " Heads it is. Margaret Howard becomes Mrs. Richard Yates. Congratulate me, professor." Renmark stood motionless as a statue, an object lesson in self-control. Yates set his hat more jaunt- «9 290 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS ily on his head, and slipped the epoch-making coin into his trousers pocket. " Good-bye, old man," he said. " I'll see you later, and tell you all the particulars." Without waiting for the answer, for which he probably knew there would have been little use in delaying, Yates walked to the fence and sprang over it, with one hand on the top rail. Renmark stood still for some minutes, then, quietly gathering un< derbrush and sticks large and small, lighted a fire, and sat down on a log, with his head in his hands. CHAPTER XXII Yates walked merrily down the road, whistling " Gayly the troubador." Perhaps there is no mo- ment in a man's life when he relishes the joy of being alive more keenly than when he goes to propose to a girl of whose favourable answer he is reasonably sure — unless it be the moment he walks away an ac- cepted lover. There is a magic about a June night, with its soft, velvety darkness and its sweet, mild air laden with the perfumes of wood and field. The en- chantment of the hour threw its spell over the young man, and he resolved to live a better life, and be worthy of the girl he had chosen, or, rather, that fate had chosen for him. He paused a moment, leaning over the fence near the Howard homestead, for he had not yet settled in his own mind the de- tails of the meeting. He would not go in, for in that case he knew he would have to talk, perhaps for hours, with everyone but the person he wished to meet. If he announced himself and asked to see Margaret alone, his doing so would embarrass her at the very beginning. Yates was naturally too much of a diplomatist to begin awkwardly. As he stood there, wishing chance would bring her out of the agi * 1 J f" m 1 1 r; !■ if ^^^^Hr i 308 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS self. She denied it at first, but admitted it afte^ ward, and then bolted." " You must have used great tact and delicacy." *• See here, Renmark ; I'm not going to stand any of your sneering. I told you this was a sore subject with me. I'm not telling you because I like to, but because I have to. Don't put me in fighting humour, Mr. Renmark. If /talk fight, I won't begin for no reason and then back out for no reason. I'll go on.** " I'll be discreet, and beg to take back all I said. What else ? '* " Nothing else. Isn't that enough ? It was more than enough for me — at the time. I tell you, Ren- mark, I spent a pretty bad half-hour sitting on the fence and thinking about it.** " So long as that ? " Yates rose from the fire indignantly. " I take that back, too," cried the professor hastily. " I didn't mean it.** " It strikes me you've become awfully funny all of a sudden. Don't you think it*s about time we took to our bunks? It's late.** Renmark agreed with him, but did not turn in. He walked to the friendly fence, laid his arms along the top rail, and gazeo at the friendly stars. He had not noticed before how lovely the night was with its impressive stillness, as if the world had stopped, as a steamer stops in mid-ocean. After quieting his troubled spirit with the restful stars he climbed the fence and v/alked down the road, taking little heed of the direction. The still night was a soothing IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 309 companion. He came at last to a sleeping village of wooden houses, and through the centre of the town ran a single line of rails, an iron link connect- ing the unknown hamlet with all civilisation. A red and a green light glimmered down the line, giv- ing the only indication that a train ever came that way. As he went a mile or two farther the cool breath of the great lake made itself felt, and after crossing a field he suddenly came upon the water, finding all further progress in that direction barred. Huge sand dunes formed the shore, covered with sighing pines. At the foot of the dunes stretched a broad beach of firm sand, dimly visible in contrast with the darker water ; and at long intervals fell the light ripple of the languid summer waves, running up the beach with a half-asleep whisper, that became softer and softer until it was merged in the silence beyond. Far out on the dark waters a point of light, like a floating star, showed where a steamer was slowly making her way ; and so still was the night that he felt rather than heard her pulsating engines. It was the only sign of life visible from that enchanted bay — the bay of the silver strand. Renmark threw himself down on the soft sand at the foot of a dune. The point of light gradually worked its way to the west, following, doubtless un- consciously, the star of empire, and disappeared round the headland, taking with it a certain vague sense of companionship. But the world is very small, and a man is never quite as much alone as he thinks he is. Renmark heard the low hoot of an el i I L 3IO IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS Ij.: k I 'I « owl among the trees, which cry he was astonished to find answered from the water. He sat up and listened. Presently there grated on the sand the keel of a boat, and some one stepped ashore. From the woods there emerged the shadowy forms of three men. Nothing was said, but they got silently into the boat, which might have been Charon's craft for all he could see of it. The rattle of the row- locks and the plash of oars followed, while a voice cautioned the rowers to make less noise. It was evident that some belated fugitives were eluding the authorities of both countries. Renmark thought, with a smile, that if Yates were in his place he would at least give them a fright. A sharp com- mand to an imaginary company to load and fire would travel far through such a night, and would give the rowers a few moments of great discomfort. Renmark, however, did not shout, but treated the episode as part of the mystical dream, and lay down on the sand again. He noticed that the water* in the east seemed to feel the approach of morning even before the sky. Gradually the day dawned, a slowly lightening grey at first, until the coming sun spattered a filmy cloud with gold and crimson. Ren- mark watched the glory of the sunrise, took one lin- gering look at the curved beauty of the bay shore, shook the sand from his clothing, and started back for the village and the camp beyond. The village was astir when he reached it. He was surprised to see Stoliker on horseback in front of one of the taverns. Two assistants were with him, itonished up and 5and the e. From forms of t silently on's craft the row- i a voice It was iding the thought, place he arp com- and fire nd would scorn fort, ated the lay down water* in morning awned, a ing sun n. Ren- one lin- y shore, ;ed back He was front of rith. him, IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 311 also seated on horses. The constable seemed dis- turbed by the sight of Renmark, but he was there to do his duty. ** Hello I " he -^ried, " you're up early. I have a warrant for the a. rest of your friend : I suppose you won't tell me where he is ? " " You don't expect me to give any information that will get a friend into trouble, do you? espe- cially as he has done nothing." " That's as may turn out before a jury," said one of the assistants gravely. " Yes," assented Stoliker, winking quietly at the professor. That is for judge and jury to deter- mine — not you." " Well," said Renmark, " I shall not inform against anyone, unless I am compelled to do so, but I may save you some trouble by telling where I have been and what I have seen. I am on my way back from the lake. If you go down there, you will still see the mark of a boat's keel on the sand, and probably footprints. A boat came over from the other shore in the night, and a man got on board. I don't say who the man was, and I had nothing to do with the matter in any way except as a spectator. That is all the information I have to give." Stoliker turned to his assistants and nodded. " What did I tell you ? " he asked. " We were right on his track." " You said the railroad," grumbled the man who had spoken before. " Well, we were within two miles of him. Let us 312 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS I811 1 i '• 1 b ,: fi . go down to the lake and see the traces. Then we can return the warrant." Renmark found Yates still asleep in the tent. He prepared breakfast without disturbing him. When the meal was ready, he roused the reporter and told him of his meeting with Stoliker, advising him to get back to New York without delay. Yates yawned sleepily. " Yes," he said, " I've been dreaming it all out. ril get father-ir-law to tote me out to Fort Erie to* night." " Do you think it will be safe to put it off so long ? " " Safer than trying to get away during the day. After breakfast I'm going down to the Bartlett homestead. Must have a chat with the old folks, you know. I'll spend the rest of the day making up for that interview by talking with Kitty. Stol- iker will never search for me there, and now that he thinks I'm gone, he will likely make a visit to the tent. Stoliker is a good fellow, but his strong point is duty, you know; and if he's certain I'm gone, he'll give his country the worth of its money by searching. I won't be back for dinner, so you can put in your time reading my Dime Novels. I make no reflections on your cooking, Renny, now that the vacation is over; but I have my preferences, and they incline toward a final meal v/ith the Bartletts. If I were you, I'd have a nap. You look tired out." " I am," said the professor. Renmark intended to lie down for a few moments until Yates was clear of the camp, after which he de- IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 31^ hen we nt. He When md told him to all out. Erie to^ )long?" the day. Bartlett Id folks, r making Stol- that he to the ng point m gone, oney by you can I make that the es, and iartletts. ed out." loments h he de- termined to pay a visit ; but Nature, when she got him locked up in sleep, took her revenge. He did not hear Stoliker and his satellites search the prem- ises, just as Yates had predicted they would ; and when he finally awoke, he found to his astonishment that it was nearly dark. But he was all the better for his sleep, and he attended to his personal ap- pearance with more than ordinary care. Old Hiram Bartlett accepted the situation with the patient and grim stolidity of a man who takes a blow dealt him by a Providence known to be inscru- table. What he had done to deserve it, was beyond his comprehension. He silently hitched up his horses, and, for the first time in his life, drove into Fort Erie without any reasonable excuse for going there. He tied his team at the usual corner, after which he sat in one of the taverns and drank strong waters that had no apparent effect on him. He even went so far as to smoke two native cigars; and a man who can do that, can do anything. To bring up a daughter who would deliberately accept a man from " the States,** and to have a wife who would aid and abet such an action, giving comfort and support to tiie enemy, seemed to him traitorous to all the traditions of 1812, or any other date in the history of the two countries. At times wild ideas of getting blind full, and going- home to break every breakable thing in the house, rose in his mind ; but prudence whispered that he had to live all the rest of his life with his wife, and he acknowl- edged that this scheme of vengeance had its draw ■"•« 1 1 If 1 314 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS backs. Finally, he untied his patient team, after paying his bill, and drove silently home, not having returned, even by a nod, any of the salutations ten- dered to him that day. He was somewhat relieved to find no questions were asked, and that his wife recognised the fact that he was passing through a crisis. Nevertheless, there was a steely glitter in her eye under which he uneasily quailed, for it told him a line had been reached which it would not be well for him to cross. She forgave, but it must not go any further. When Yates kissed Kitty good-night at the gate, he asked her, with some trepidation, whether she had told anyone of their engagement. " No one but Margaret," said Kitty. " And what did she say ? " asked Yates, as if, after all, her opinion was of no importance. " She said she was sure I should be happy and she knew you would make a good husband." " She's rather a nice girl, is Margaret," remarked Yates, with the air of a man willing to concede good qualities to a girl other than his own, but in- dicating, after all, that there was but one on earth for him. " She is a lovely girl," cried Kitty enthusiastically. " I wonder, Dick, when you knew her, why you ever fell in love with me." " The idea ! I haven't a word to say against Mar- garet; but, compared with my girl " And he finished his sentence with a practical il- lustration of his frame of mind. IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS 315 m, after t having ions ten- relieved his wife irough a :er in her told him t be well t not go the gate, ether she as if, after y and she remarked concede n, but in- on earth linst Mar- ictical il- As he walked alone down the road he reflected that Margaret had acted very handsomely, and he resolved to drop in and wish her good-bye. But as he approached the house his courage began to fail him, and he thought it better to sit on the fence, near the place where he had sa^ . night before, and think it over. It took a good deal of thinking. But as he sat there it was destined that Yates should receive some information which would simplify mat- ters. Two persons came slowly out of the gate in the gathering darkness. They strolled together up the road past him, absorbed in themselves. When directly opposite the reporter, Renmark put his arm around Margaret's waist, and Yates nearly fell off the fence. He held his breath until they were saf'^ly out of hearing, then slid down and crawled along in the shadow until he came to the side road, up which he walked, thoughtfully pausing every few moments to remark : " Well, 1*11 be " But speech seemed to have failed him ; he could get no further. He stopped at the fence and leaned against it, gazing for the last time at the tent, glimmering white, like a misshapen ghost, among the sombre trees. He had no energy left to climb over. " Well, I'm a chimpanzee," he muttered to himself at last. " The highest bidder can have me, with no upset price. Dick Yates, I wouldn't have believed it of you. You a newspap(ir man ? You a reporter from *way back? You up to snuff? Yates, I'm ashamed to be seen in your company ! Go back to New York and let the youngest reporter in from a 3i6 IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS country newspaper scoop the daylight out of you. To think that this thing has been going on right lender your well-developed nose, and you never saw it — worse, never had the faintest suspicion of it ; that it was thrust at you twenty times a day — nearly got your stupid head smashed on account of it ; yet you bleated away like the innocent little lamb that you are, and never even suspected ! Dick, you're a three- sheet-poster fool in coloured ink. And to think that both of them know all about the first proposal! Both of them ! Well, thank Heaven, Toronto is a long way from New York." '} THE END* LMS out of you. ing on right 3u never saw on of it ; that —nearly got f it ; yet you mb that you Du're a three- :o think that st proposal! roronto is a