r sir," he went on, "if we let this chap
go, it won't be six months before the whole country'll be full of this
kind. Look at that Harper's Ferry business."

"Well," said Compton somewhat hotly, "look at it. What harm has been
done? Has there been any nigger insurrection?"

Jack Walthall laughed good-naturedly. "Little Compton is a quick talker,
boys. Let's give the man the benefit of all the arguments."

"Great God! You don't mean to let this d---- rascal go, do you, Jack?"
exclaimed Major Jimmy Bass.

"No, no, sweet uncle; but I've got a nicer dose than tar and feathers."

The result was that the stranger's face and hands were given a coat of
lampblack, his arms were tied to his body, and a large placard was
fastened to his back. The placard bore this inscription:

ABOLITIONIST!

PASS HIM ON, BOYS

Mr. Davies was a pitiful-looking object after the young men had
plastered his face and hands with lampblack and oil, and yet his
appearance bore a certain queer relation to the humorous exhibitions one
sees on the negro minstrel stage. Particularly was this the case when he
smiled at Compton.

"By George, boys!" exclaimed Mr. Buck Ransome, "this chap could play Old
Bob Ridley at the circus."

When everything was arranged to suit them, the young men formed a
procession, and marched the blackened stranger from Little Compton's
door into the public street. Little Compton seemed to be very much
interested in the proceeding. It was remarked afterward that he seemed
to be very much agitated, and that he took a position very near the
placarded abolitionist. The procession, as it moved up the street,
attracted considerable attention. Rumors that an abolitionist was to be
dealt with had apparently been circulated, and a majority of the male
inhabitants of the town were out to view the spectacle. The procession
passed entirely around the public square, of which the court-house was
the centre, and then across the square to the park-like enclosure that
surrounded the temple of justice.

As the young men and their prisoner crossed this open space, Major Jimmy
Bass, fat as he was, grew so hilarious that he straddled his cane as
children do broomsticks, and pretended that he had as much as he could
do to hold his fiery wooden steed. He waddled and pranced out in front
of the abolitionist, and turned and faced him, whereat his steed showed
the most violent symptoms of running