"Then why are n't ye under arrest?" snapped the squire.

"'Cause there 's too many of us, and too few of you," explained
Bagby, equably. "Now the Committee has sent orders
to each county committee to make out a list of those we think
ought to be arrested, and a meeting 's to be held this afternoon
to act on it. Old Hennion he came to me last night
and said he wanted your name put on, and he'd vote to
recommend that you be taken to Connecticut and held in
prison there along with the Governor."

"Pox the old villain!" fumed Mr. Meredith. "For a six-months
I've sat quiet, as ye know, and 't is merely his way of
paying the debts he owes me. A fine state ye've brought the
land to, when a man can settle private scores in such a
manner."

"There is n't no denying that you 're no friend to the
cause, and if any one 's to be took up hereabouts, it should be
you. Still, I'm a fair-play fellow, and so I thought, before I
let him have his way, I'd come over and have a talk with you,
to see if we could n't fix things."

"How?"

"If the king 's come to his senses and intends to deal fair
with us," remarked Bagby, with a preliminary glance around
and a precautionary dropping of his voice, "that 's all I ask,
and so I don't see no reason for attacking his friends until we
are more certain of what 's coming. At the same time, if