“Shut up!” roared the colonel. “I can’t stand any more such lying. I know all about you, and I know your guns were not stolen from you, and that you stole John Brewer’s sail-boat, with everything in it.” “We didn’t steal no boat,” was the surly reply. “That was a lie them fellers made up.” “You didn’t, eh?” cried the colonel. “I’ve some witnesses on hand that’ll say something about that.” Then, turning to the dining-room window, he shouted, “Come out here!” and immediately Adam and the three boys appeared. “Now, then,” said the colonel, “will you say before these persons that you did not steal a boat from them?” At first the two young men seemed utterly dismayed at the sight of the three boys and the man from whom they had stolen the boat, and whom they supposed were now far away. But as one of them fixed his eyes on Chap his dismay seemed to change into anger. His face grew very red, and he shook his fist at our long-legged young friend. “There’s the feller,” he cried, “who tried to kill me! He fired a gun straight at me, and not a dozen feet away, and I a-doin’ nothin’. It’s all very well to talk about a little trick we played on ’em about the boat, but here’s a feller who tried to murder me. If there’s any law in this land I’ll have it on him!” The colonel turned to Chap. “Is that so?” he said. Chap admitted that the main facts were true, and then explained how it had all happened, but the colonel interrupted him, and leaning forward in his chair, as if he would jump out of it, he shouted at him,-- “I wouldn’t have believed it of you! If there was a court sitting in this town, I’d have you brought before it this very day. I’m ashamed to have you in my house. If ever there was a boy who deserved being clapped into jail, it would be the one who fired at that fellow and didn’t hit him! If I had my way I’d put you into prison till you learned to shoot.” At this there was a great roar of laughter from everybody except the two young men, and to these the colonel now addressed himself. “There’s been a good many scoundrels in these parts, since I’ve lived here, but I never see any to beat you two. You steal other people’s property, and then you come here, and, right to my face, charge honest men with taking your things. I don’t believe you ever owned anything in your lives. And you want your guns, do you? Well, you hired them of Jim Randall,--I know all about it,--and you’ll pay for them from the day you took them till this minute.” One of the men attempted to say here that he hadn’t had them for ever so long. “Shut up!” roared the colonel. “You don’t suppose I’m going to let Jim be cheated out of his money, do you, just because other people had to take care of the guns to keep you from doing mischief?--Bob!” In a moment the negro boy appeared, and the colonel said to him,--