"Aunty, I shall have to go out myself this evening, so, if I am not home by sunset, don't wait up for me." "Why, where are you going?" "I am going to the Calvert Hotel on some business." "What business?" "Well, it is business connected with the broken-off wedding." "Seems to me you are a good deal mixed up with this rumpus. What kind of business is it?" "It is of a confidential nature, auntie, else I could explain it to you." "Humph! humph! humph!" sniffed the old lady. The young man laid the enveloped note he had received from Le on the mantelpiece, and went upstairs to put on his best clothes, in which to execute his important mission. Miss Sibby went and took the note in her hand, looked at it wistfully, then laid it down, and took her spectacles out of her pocket, wiped them, and put them on her nose. Then she took the note up again and read the address. "To Col. A. Anglesea, Calvert Hotel." Then she turned it over and examined it. The gummed edges of the envelope had but lightly adhered. She saw that a slight touch would open them. She sat down in her low chair, with the note in her hand, and considered. She could hear Roland moving about overhead, and knew that he was safe to be there for ten or fifteen minutes. She was tempted, but not so much by curiosity as by interest and anxiety in and on account of the boys. "Them lads is up to somethink!" she said to herself. "I knowed they was up to somethink as soon as I heard 'em talking together! I couldn't hear half they said, because the wind was a-blowin' the wrong way, but I knowed they was up to somethink! They always is! Them boys is! "When two or three of them is gathered together, it ain't the Lord, but the devil, as is in the midst of them. Now, I'm gwine to see what's in this note." She opened the envelope, and read words that made her hair fairly stand on end. "The Lord have mercy upon me, a miserable sinner! What is the boys a-coming to in these times, anyhow? This mustn't go, noways!" And then she did a very sly thing. The challenge was written on a sheet of very thick, white note paper. It filled only the first page. Miss Sibby tore off the written page, folded it in its own folds, and put it in her pocket. Then she took the blank half of the sheet, folded it, also, and put it back into the envelope. Lastly, she wet the gummed edges of the envelope, and stuck them down, fastening the note much more securely than she had found it. "Now, then, Roland will make a fool of hisself carrying of a blank note. And I will take myself off to Mondreer, soon as ever I can go, and I will show this here challenge to Mr. Force. And he, being a justice of the peace, will be bound to send out a warrant to 'rest up that bloody-minded young rip of a cousin of hizzen! Lor'! what a time there'll be!" CHAPTER XXIX A YOUNG FIRE EATER When the family and guests of Mondreer arose the next morning, they found the ground covered with snow, but the sky was clear and bright.