oor, and, in default
of any other mode of securing it, placed against it a heavy table as
a barricade.

Having thus secured the premises in front, he proceeded to fortify
the rear, and, when this was accomplished to his satisfaction, he
returned to the kitchen, sat down opposite the widow, and wiped his
shining pate.

"Why, uncle, are we going to stand out a siege that you take so much
pains to lock up?"

Ruby sat down on the floor at his mother's feet as he spoke, and
Minnie sat down on a low stool beside him.

"Maybe we are, lad," replied the captain; "anyhow, it's always well
to be ready--

'Ready, boys, ready,
We'll fight and we'll conquer again and again'."

"Come uncle, explain yourself."

"Explain myself, nephy? I can neither explain myself nor anybody
else. D'ye know, Ruby, that you're a burglar?"

"Am I, uncle? Well, I confess that that's news."

"Ay, but it's true though, at least the law in Arbroath says so, and
if it catches you, it'll hang you as sure as a gun."

Here Captain Ogilvy explained to his nephew the nature of the crime
that was committed on the night of his departure, the evidence of his
guilt in the finding part of the plate in the garden, coupled with
his sudden disappearance, and wound up by saying that he regarded
him, Ruby, as being in a "reg'lar fix".

"But surely," said Ruby, whose face became gradually graver as the
case was unfolded to him, "surely it must be easy to prove to the
satisfaction of everyone that I had nothing whatever to do with this
affair?"

"Easy to prove it!" said the captain in an excited tone; "wasn't you
seen, just about the hour of the robbery, going stealthily down the
street, by Big Swankie and Davy Spink, both of whom will swear to
it."

"Yes, but _you_ were with me, uncle."

"Ay, so I was, and hard enough work I had to convince them that I had
nothin' to do with it myself, but they saw that I couldn't jump a
stone wall eight foot high to save my life, much less break into a
house, and they got no further evidence to convict me, so they let me
off; but it'll go hard with you, nephy, for Major Stewart described
the men, and one o' them was a big strong feller, the description
bein' as like you as two peas, only their faces was blackened, and
the lantern threw the light all one way, so he didn't see them well.
Then, the things found in our garden,--and the villains will haul me
up as a witness against you, for, didn't I find