“I hope I haven’t put you out any, Captain Jared? The fact is, I felt so much ashamed of that evening at Crosby’s that I thought it right to come and tell you so. I have been down at Peter’s and on my way home I saw your light. I hope there are no hard feelings left, Captain Jared?” The worthy captain felt his position rather uncomfortable just at that moment. Obed could not fail to notice the lethal weapons on the table and would surely wonder why the man of peace, Jared Higgins, had brought them forth for inspection. “Don’t talk about it, Obed; no hard feelings at all, my lad. These are ticklish times, Obed, and the slowest of us is apt to feel the strain on his temper. Sit down and smoke a pipe.” Obed’s eye settled on the table. He certainly was surprised and showed it. “By George, Captain Jared, but that’s a queer sight to see on the table of a man who hates fighting as you do!” he exclaimed. “Well, Obed,” said the captain confusedly, “I just thought I’d have a look at the old kit of fighting tools which I used during the Revolution. Kind o’ seemed to me that they wanted cleaning.” “You don’t mean to say that you are ever going to use them again, Captain Jared?” Captain Jared was a man of courage and he required all of it to admit to Obed Sparrow the real reason of the display on the table. But he was equal to the emergency. “Obed, my lad,” answered the captain, without a note of apology in his voice, “as you know, I am in favor of making the best terms possible with the British in view of our being unable to fight them with any prospect of success. I stick to that opinion still, and I want to know if you, a sensible man, don’t think me right when you see before you the kind of weapons we have to oppose the first-class arms of the enemy? The cutlass, I admit, is nothing the worse for wear; there is good steel in it and it is not unacquainted with British blood. The old musket, too, in its day was true to its work, but for thirty years it has been on the hooks and I’m afraid its useful days are over. The pistols might still give a good account of themselves at close quarters, but they have been out of action since the night the Barbary pirates boarded us, so, I daresay, they want a lot of brightening up. Bad as these weapons are, Obed, I doubt if any person in Eastham has better ones. And yet, the hotheads of this town are shouting for combat! Why, man, it’s just plain suicide!” The old man’s earnestness had its effect on Obed. He was silent for a few moments and in his heart he acknowledged that Captain Jared had spoken truth. “But, Captain Jared, you knew the condition of your weapons; why did you take them out tonight?” Captain Jared drew himself to his full height as he replied: