t is hardened even as was Pharaoh's,"
whined Godlamb, again resuming his canting tone. "But be it even as thou
wilt."

Gerald triumphed; the midnight watch was his; and with it his father's
safety and his father's blessing.

They returned to the spot where Maywood still stood observing them, Gideon
following in the rear, muttering something about "the hand of the ungodly
being upon him."

"Speak, Gideon," said Gerald as they approached, "and thank your comrade
here for his kindly proffered barter of hours; since it is I who take your
post, you will not need his well-meant and disinterested civilities."

There was something of a sneer on Gerald's lip as he pronounced these
words, which probably augmented the feelings of anger that now evidently
flushed the usually cold face of Maywood and darkened his brow; for the
latter appeared to tremble with suppressed passion as he advanced upon his
rival with the words--

"How now, you, Master what's-your-name? What warrants you to interfere
thus ill advisedly in my concerns? If this man has given up to me, at the
midnight hour, the watch over that offshoot of a rotten and corrupted stem
of tyranny, is it for you to stand between me and my purpose?"

"Your purpose is doubtless of the best, and truest, and worthiest,"
replied Gerald, with another flickering sneer upon his lip. "But this
watch is mine now, by Master Gideon's consent, and these hours of the
night I intend to devote to the watching of those whose security may need
my care."

Mark Maywood bit his lip, and clenched his hands together in a vain effort
to suppress his violent irritation.

"Hoity toity! Here's a coil about an old inveterate Amalekite!" said
Gideon, in a mixture of his natural and assumed phraseology, prudently
withdrawing at the same time to some distance from the angry young men, as
if afraid lest an appeal to himself should involve him in the quarrel.

"Hark ye, sirrah," cried Maywood angrily, "I am not about to resign the
right this man has yielded to me at the caprice of the first foolish
fellow who chooses to cross my path, without making him repent his
uncalled-for interference. What is it to me, this post? but browbeaten by
a bullying boy, I never will be."

"Nor will I yield to a base and treacherous hypocrite like thee, Mark
Maywood," exclaimed his angry antagonist.

The hands of both the young men were instantly upon their rapiers.

"By the mass, what are ye about?" exclaimed Gideon