him at the first advance he made."

Sympathy for the man prevented his listeners taking offence at
the words which, from any one else, would have brought serious
consequences. The parson said soothingly:

"If you were not so wrought up, captain, you would not be so
unreasonable; suppose Wade and I had gone to you with the statement
that the man who, according to your own words, had saved your life but
a short time before in the mountains, was a villain, who contemplated
robbing you of your child; what would you have done?"

"Thanked you and been on my guard."

"You would have done nothing of the kind; you would have cursed us and
told us to mind our own business."

"No matter what I would have done, it was your duty to tell me,
regardless of the consequences to yourselves. I might have resented
it, but my eyes would have been opened and this blow saved me."

"Nothing could have opened your eyes, for you were blind," said the
parson, who felt that though the man was intensely agitated, he ought
to hear some plain truths; "even had you suspected there was ground
for our fears, you would have gone to Lieutenant Russell and demanded
an explanation. He would have denied it, and you would have believed
him with the result that he would have been put on his guard and would
have deceived you the more completely."

"Likewise, as aforesaid," added Ruggles, "the villain would have come
to us and made us give our grounds for our charges. What ridic'lous
fools we would have been, when all we could answer was that we
thought he looked as if he meant to run away with your darter."

"There may be some justice in what you say," replied the captain more
composedly; "It was I who was blind, but I can't understand it. Never
until I read that piece of paper, did I suspect the truth."

"Howsumever, the parson and me haven't been idle; we often talked it
over and fixed on a line that we thought would work better than going
to you. We showed the leftenant that we was onto his game; I give him
a scowl now and then, as it fell convenient, that said 'Beware!' We,
that is the parson and me, made up our minds to watch close, and, at
the first sign that was dead sure, we'd fall onto him like a couple of
mountains."

"And why didn't you?"

"He fooled us as he did you. We was talkin' over matters the very
minute you busted into the door and was satisfied that he had larned
he was playin' with fire and had concluded to drop it. We was as