alding.

"So, soon as Sam told that--'twa'n't more 'n half an hour ago--I says to
him, 'You go an' stir up some o' the boys, an' 'long towards ten o'clock
you jest surround the old Pelton house an' git him, tea-set an' all.
Stan's to reason,' says I, 'it's an old deserted house, an' he's goin'
to git part of a night's rest there. 'Fore mornin' he'll be up an' put
for some banjin'-place he's got, an' then that silver'll be melted up
an' you never'll see hide nor hair on 't again.' One spell I thought
mebbe he was goin' to build up a fire in the old fireplace an' melt it
right then an' there; but John says 'tain't likely. Says you need more
heat'n that to melt up silver." She paused for want of breath.

"Be they goin' to do it?" asked Ann faintly.

"Who?"

"Them young folks. Be they goin' to surround him an' take him up?"

"Well, I guess they be," said Mrs. John C., rising and drawing her shawl
about her. "They will if they've got any seem to 'em. So I told 'em when
they was talkin' on 't over."

Ann followed her to the door.

"If they should come acrost the tea-set," she hesitated, "mebbe they'd
git hold o' that an' let him go."

Mrs. John C. gave her a reassuring touch with her capable right hand.

"Don't you worry," she said, out of cheerful experience of her own
enterprise. "I see to that. I says to John C., 'He ain't a-goin' to slip
out an' git away. It's goin' to be done accordin' to law an' order,' I
says. 'I sha'n't sleep a wink till that scoundrel's landed in jail.' So
I says to John C., 'You harness up the colt an' ride over an' git the
sheriff, an' when the boys pitch onto him, have him ready to clap the
handcuffs on.' Don't you worry, Ann. You'll see your tea-set yit."

Ann stood at the door, hearing her walking heavily away, and a gentle
rage possessed her when she noted how broad her back looked, how capable
of carrying burdens to their goal. She was deeply attached to Mrs. John
C., but she realized how impossible it was to block her purposes.
Hitherto they had all seemed beneficent ones; but now Ann felt something
of the indignant protest that always surged in her when she saw a sleek
and prosperous cat baiting a mouse. She went in and sat down again, with
a double anxiety upon her. It was not only her tea-set she lamented, but
the hardness of life wherein any creature should be worried down and
caught. And she remembered, as she did not in loyalty allow herself to
remember often, that her brothe