, I may not dwell upon this injustice to the
men who won an empire and were flung a bone long afterwards.

It was early autumn once more, and such a busy week we had had at the
mill, that Tom was perforce obliged to remain at home and help, though he
longed to be gone with Cowan and Ray a-hunting to the southwest. Up
rides a man named Jarrott, flings himself from his horse, passes the time
of day as he watches the grinding, helps Tom to tie up a sack or two, and
hands him a paper.

"What's this?" says Tom, staring at it blankly.

"Ye won't blame me, Mac," answers Mr. Jarrott, somewhat ashamed of his
role of process-server. "'Tain't none of my doin's."

"Read it, Davy," said Tom, giving it to me.

I stopped the mill, and, unfolding the paper, read. I remember not the
quaint wording of it, save that it was ill-spelled and ill-writ
generally. In short, it was a summons for Tom to appear before the court
at Danville on a certain day in the following week, and I made out that a
Mr. Neville Colfax was the plaintiff in the matter, and that the suit had
to do with land.

"Neville Colfax!" I exclaimed, "that's the man for whom Mr. Potts was
agent."

"Ay, ay," said Tom, and sat him down on the meal-bags. "Drat the
varmint, he kin hev the land."

"Hev the land?" cried Polly Ann, who had come in upon us. "Hev ye no
sperrit, Tom McChesney?"

"There's no chance ag'in the law," said Tom, hopelessly. "Thar's Perkins
had his land tuck away last year, and Terrell's moved out, and twenty
more I could name. And thar's Dan'l Boone, himself. Most the rich
bottom he tuck up the critters hev got away from him."

"Ye'll go to Danville and take Davy with ye and fight it," answered Polly
Ann, decidedly. "Davy has a word to say, I reckon. 'Twas he made the
mill and scar't that Mr. Potts away. I reckon he'll git us out of this
fix."

Mr. Jarrott applauded her courage.

"Ye have the grit, ma'am," he said, as he mounted his horse again.
"Here's luck to ye!"

The remembrance of Mr. Potts weighed heavily upon my mind during the next
week. Perchance Tom would have to pay for this prank likewise. 'Twas
indeed a foolish, childish thing to have done, and I might have known
that it would only have put off the evil day of reckoning. Since then,
by reason of the mill site and the business we got by it, the land had
become the most valuable in that part of the country. Had I known
Colonel Clark's whereabouts, I should have gone to him for advi