"How is this, my good fellows? what is meant by your present military attitude? Why are you, on the sabbath, mustering in this guise--surrounded by barricades, arms in your hands, and placing sentinels on duty. What does all this mean?" "We carry arms," replied Dexter, without pause, "because it suits us to do so; we fix barricades to keep out intruders; our sentinels have a like object; and if by attitude you mean our standing here and standing there--why, I don't see in what the thing concerns anybody but ourselves!" "Indeed!" said the Georgian; "you bear it bravely, sir. But it is not to you only that I speak. Am I to understand you, good people, as assembled here for the purpose of resisting the laws of the land?" "We don't know, captain, what you mean exactly by the laws of the land," was the reply of Munro; "but, I must say, we are here, as you see us now, to defend our property, which the laws have no right to take from us--none that I can see." "So! and is that your way of thinking, sir; and pray who are you that answer so freely for your neighbors?" "One, sir, whom my neighbors, it seems, have appointed to answer for them." "I am then to understand, sir, that you have expressed their determination on this subject, and that your purpose is resistance to any process of the state compelling you to leave these possessions!" "You have stated their resolution precisely," was the reply. "They had notice that unauthorized persons, hearing of our prosperity, were making preparations to take them from us by force; and they prepared for resistance. When we know the proper authorities, we shall answer fairly--but not till then." "Truly, a very manful determination; and, as you have so expressed yourself, permit me to exhibit my authority, which I doubt not you will readily recognise. This instrument requires you, at once, to remove from these lands--entirely to forego their use and possession, and within forty-eight hours to yield them up to the authority which now claims them at your hands." Here the officer proceeded to read all those portions of his commission to which he referred, with considerable show of patience. "All that's very well in your hands, and from your mouth, good sir; but how know we that the document you bear is not forged and false--and that you, with your people there, have not got up this fetch to trick us out of those possessions which you have not the heart to fight for? We're up to trap, you see."