ng his friends by sending off persons
troublesome to them, but he had not thought of his own case. Here was
the very thing; he would send off this troublesome lad to fight for the
queen; and whether he went to the Low Countries under Marlborough, or
to Spain with this new expedition which was being prepared, it was very
unlikely that he would ever return to trouble him.

He was only sixteen, indeed, but he was strong and well grown, and much
fitter for service than many of those who would be sent. If the
young fellow stopped here he would always be a trouble, and a bone of
contention between himself and his wife. Besides, for Alice's sake,
it was clearly his duty to get the fellow out of the way. Girls, Mr.
Anthony considered, were always falling in love with the very last
people in the world with whom they should do so, and out of sheer
contrariety it was more than possible that Alice might take a fancy for
this penniless vagabond, and if she did Mrs. Anthony was fool enough to
support her in her folly.

Of course there would be trouble with his wife when she found what had
happened to the lad--for the mayor did not deceive himself for a moment
by the thought that he would be able to conceal from his wife the cause
of Jack's absence; he was too well aware of Mrs. Anthony's power of
investigation. Still, after it was done it could not be undone, and
it was better to have one domestic storm than a continuation of foul
weather.

Calling in his clerk the mayor read over to him the order he had
received, and bade him turn to the court book and make out a list of the
names of forty young men who had been charged before him with offenses
of drunkenness, assault, battery and rioting.

"When you have made up the list, Johnson, you will go round to the
aldermen and inform them of the order that I have received from the
government, and you can tell them that if there are any persons they
know of whom they consider that Southampton would be well rid, if they
will send the names to me I will add them to the list. Bid them not to
choose married men, if it can be avoided, for the town would be burdened
with the support of their wives and families. Another ten names will do.
The letter which accompanies the order says that from my well known zeal
and loyalty it is doubted not that Southampton will furnish a hundred
men, but if I begin with fifty that will be well enough, and we can pick
out the others at our leisure."

By the af