'an' likes to hoe 'em at sundown, so they can sleep nice an'
soft.' 'Do you?' says he; 'I reckon you're a kind woman.' He turned
around agin an' begin to look over his pocket-book. She hoed an' hoed,
an' hummed a little tune. All at once she slipped up, an' I heerd her
say, 'Boys, I give it to him good, right in the back of the head, an' he
fell on to the table, an' the water he had been drinkin' was red as
currant wine.'"

"James Moore, I'll swear you next," the magistrate said to the new
tenant of the farm; and this man proceeded to testify concerning the
finding of the chest as he was ploughing in a wet spot where he had
removed some brush.

Cy James, being recalled, gave testimony as to other buried bodies,
chiefly of children slaughtered in wantonness or jealousy, or to avoid
pursuit.

"Take this boy, Joe Neal," said Constable Hicks,[9] "and hold him fast."

"Goy!" said Clayton, with a terrible frown at Cy James, "we may have to
hang him yet! Guilty knowledge of these crimes for so many years, and
exposure at last only for a private resentment, constitute an accessory.
Well for you, depraved young man, if you had possessed the principle of
_this_ young gentleman!"

The Senator placed his hand upon a sitting figure, and there arose in
Hulda's sight the image of her lover, Levin Dennis.

"Constables," said Dr. Gibbons, the magistrate, "I shall give you your
warrants now. The Maryland authorities propose, without waiting for
extradition proceedings, to deliver your prisoners at the state line."

"Goy!" said Clayton, "they may have friends in the executive chambers at
Annapolis. No, boys, act together, like patriots, as the Maryland and
Delaware lads served in the same revolutionary brigade. Joe Johnson is
due here at noon to-morrow: be careful not to disturb old Patty nor
awaken her suspicions till he arrives. She is almost past doing evil,
but he has a lifetime left to do it in."

"Constable Neal, I'll shove them over the line to you!" spoke the
Maryland officer.

"Constable Wilson, look out when you lay on to old Patty: she may be
loaded and go off," exclaimed the Delaware officer.

"Doctor John Gibbons," spoke Clayton, "waste no time with them at the
hearing in Seaford, but get horses and send them right to Georgetown
jail; they are slippery as eels. Goy!"

As Cy James was being taken to a secure place in the garret he turned to
Levin Dennis, much wilted and crestfallen.

"Oh, Levin," he said, "Huld