his revenge.

"I need n't tell you, squire, that I'm a rising man, and I'm
going to go on rising. 'T won't be long before I'm about
what I please, especially if we make a deal. Now, though
there has n't been much intercourse between us, yet I've had
my eye on your daughter for a long spell, and if you'll give
your consent to my keeping company with her, I'll be your
friend through thick and thin."

For a moment Mr. Meredith stood with wide-open mouth,
then he roared: "Damn your impudence! ye--ye--have
my lass, ye--be off with ye--ye--" There all articulate
speech ended, the speaker only sputtering in his wrath, but his
two fists, shaken across the wall, spoke eloquently the words
that choked him.

"I thought you 'd play the fool, as usual," retorted the
suitor, as he pulled his horse's head around. "You'll live to
regret this day, see if you don't." And with this vague threat
he trotted away toward Brunswick.

Whether Bagby had purposely magnified the danger with
the object of frightening the squire into yielding to his wishes,
or whether he and Hennion were outvoted by Parson McClave
and the other members of the Committee, Mr. Meredith never
learned. Of what was resolved he was not left long in doubt,
for the morning following, the whole Committee, with a contingent
of the Invincibles, invaded the privacy of Greenwood,
and required of him that he surrender to them such arms as