your
heart! But I won't lecture, Mr. Le. I will leave that to the squire. He
can, and I reckon he will. Now, then, young gentlemen, maybe we had better
be moving. There is a carriage at the door--a most comfortable close
carriage--sent by the squire himself. Ah, he had a care for you both, the
good squire had. 'Do your necessary duty as kindly as you can, Bowen,'
says he to me, he says, after he had put the papers in my hands with his
own, and explained what I was to do. And I answered: 'Squire, do you think
being county constable for nigh on to fifty years has made a brute beast
of old Tom Bowen? Do you suppose that I could handle harsh the two lads
I've knowed since they wore check ap'ons? The one lad as growed up in your
house? And the other lad as I helped to resky myself when the schooner
_Blue Bird_ was wrecked on the shore?' But there! It's no use talking.
People say I'm getting too old for my office. Well, let 'em. I mean to
hold on to it as long as I can read a warrant or ride a horse. If only to
pervent some one taking my place who will be hard on skipple-skapple young
uns like you."

"Mr. Bowen, you have had a long ride. Won't you take some home-brewed beer
and bread and cheese before you go?" inquired Le.

The dull young man of the red head and freckled face looked up
expectantly, but the old constable shook his head, and answered,
solemnly:

"No, Mr. Leonidas; not when on duty. No, sir. If I did, there be some who
would say I was taking a bribe."

The dull young man of the red head and freckled face dropped his head and
looked disappointed.

Leonidas and Roland had by this time put on their overcoats, drawn on
their gloves and taken up their hats.

They now said that they were ready to go.

"Come, Bill. Have you gone to sleep there?" inquired the old man of his
dull comrade.

The latter got up slowly from his seat, and the little party left the
room.

Luke was in the hall, and opened the outer door.

"We are going out on business, Luke, and I shall not be home before
night," said Le.

The old servant bowed, without the least suspicion of what the nature of
that business could be.

The party left the house, entered the carriage, the young officer mounting
the box, and the elder riding inside with the young men; and they took the
road to Mondreer--the same pleasant road through the pine woods and across
Chincapin Creek Bridge, that Le and his cousins had so often traveled on
foot, or horseba