“Yelp away,” snarled Hennion, rising; “If’t ’t wuz yer bull ez wuz ter be gored yer ‘d whine t’ other side of yer teeth.”  With which remark he shuffled away.

Not stopping to listen to the expressions of sympathy and disgust that the idlers began upon, Mr. Meredith entered the public of the tavern.

“Here yer be, squire, jus’ mixed from my very bestest liquor, an’ it’ll set yer right up,” declared the landlord, offering him a pewter pot.

The squire made a motion of dissent, but seeing the publican’s look of disappointment, he took the cup and drained it.  “Ye’ve not lost your skill, Simon,” he remarked kindly, as he returned it.  “Canst tell me if ’t is possible for me to get a letter into New York quickly?”

“’T aint ez easy ez it wuz afore the soldiers come here fer they pervent the secret trade, but if yer apply tew Gin’ral Brereton, ez lodges with the paason, I calkerlate he kin send it in with a flag if he hez a mind tew”

Mr. Meredith shook his head in discouragement.  “It seems as if all I ask must be begged of enemies.  However, ’t is small grief, after what has passed.  Wilt give me pen and ink, man?”

While he was writing, Bagby came into the public, and interrupted him.

“I did n’t offer to shake hands, squire,” he said, “seeing as you were in trouble, and took up with other things, but I’m glad to see you and Miss Janice back, and there ’s my hand to prove it.”

Mr. Meredith laid down his pen, and took the proffered handshake.  “Thank ye, Mr. Bagby,” he said, meekly.

“I would n’t stop what you’re at now,” went on Joseph, sitting down at the table, “if I had n’t something in my mind as I think ’ll interest you big, and may make some things easier that you want.”

“What’s that?”

“If I put you on to this, I guess you’ll be so grateful that I don’t need to make no terms beforehand.  You ’d give me about what I asked, would n’t you, if I can get you Greenwood back again?”

“How could ye e’er do that?”

“It ’s this way.  That general act was n’t drawn very careful, and when old Hennion bid the place in, I looked it over sharp, and I concluded there was a fighting chance to break the sale.  You see, the act declares certain persons traitors, and that their property is forfeited to the state.  Now what we must do is to make out that Greenwood was Mrs. Meredith’s and that as she was n’t named in the act, of course the sale was n’t valid and is void.”

The squire wagged his head despondingly.  “By the colony law it became mine the moment she inherited it.”