one to bed. Beside, I was determined
to talk with Ham when he came back. I wandered down stairs again and
James, the butler, beckoned me into the dining room. At one end of the
table he had laid a cloth and he made me sit down and eat a very tasty
supper that had been prepared for me in the kitchen. This was an
attention I had not expected. It served to bolster up my belief that I
had some influence in my mother's house, after all!

By and by I heard Ham drive in and I went out to the stables. We kept no
footman, Ham doing all the stablework. I helped him unharness Bob and
Betty, while he told me where he had taken the Downeses. There was a
small hotel in the old part of the town, and my uncle and Paul had gone
there for the night.

"They'll probably attack the fortifications on the morrow, Master
Clint--or, them's my prognostications," remarked Ham, in conclusion.

"Meaning they'll come over here and try to see mother?" I asked.

"I reckon."

"Then they're not to be let in, Ham. I want them kept out. Dr. Eldridge
says she should not be disturbed. I mean to see that his orders are
obeyed."

"And I'm glad to see ye take the bit in your teeth, sir," exclaimed the
coachman, with emphasis. "It's time ye did so."

"What do you mean, Ham?" I demanded, curiously.

The old man--he was past sixty, but hale and hearty still--came out of
Bob's stall and put his grizzled face close to mine while he stared into
my eyes in the dim light of the stable lantern.

"List ye, Master Clint," he said. "'Tis my suspicion that that same
scaley Chester Downes has it in his mind to get rid of you--to put ye
away from your mother altogether--to make her believe ye air a bad egg,
in fact. 'Tis time he and that precious b'y of his was put off the
place. Ye've done right this night, Clint Webb, if ye never done so
before."

CHAPTER V

IN WHICH THE OLD COACHMAN GOES SOMEWHAT INTO DETAILS

Ordinarily it might seem that a servant taking it upon himself to so
plainly state his opinion of family matters, should be admonished. But
Hamilton Mayberry was just as much my friend as he was our hired
coachman. He had been my father's friend. He had served in the same ship
as my father long before he came ashore to drive horses for Dr. Webb.
And I verily believe the old man loved me as though I were his own
blood.

Anyhow, I was too excited and worried on this night to think of any
class distinction. Beside, among Bolderhead people, the