‘About _you_, is it?’ cried Jamie, with all the assurance imaginable, ‘and is it you, you thafe o’ the w-o-r-r-r-l-d, that’s come to lie me down, and try to hang his friend widout judge or jury, and widout binifit of clargy, too. Och, you thunderin’ wilyun! didn’t you tell me to go in here, and slape a bit, just till the morning, when you was to call me up, sure?’ ‘Sir,’ said Jim Brown, addressing Vandewater, ‘When you called at my shop, I didn’t understand your object, and as your questions seemed very odd, I wasn’t well pleased with them; but I’ve been told since that this man pretends I had an engagement with him. It is a lie. I’ve no intercourse with the man when I can help it.’ ‘Hear the lying thafe,’ cried Jamie, in a towering passion, and before he could be prevented, he had slipped a long knife out of his sleeve, with which he rushed upon Jim Brown and stabbed him to the heart. Brown fell dead at the feet of Monteagle. The murder was committed so quick and unexpectedly that it was some minutes before the people collected there were apprized of what had happened! No sooner had the sad tale been told than the inhabitants came running in from all directions; a large mob was collected, a rope procured, and it was with great difficulty that Charley and his aids could prevent the populace from hanging up Jamie on the spot. Mr. Brown also tried hard to rescue Jamie from the fangs of the incensed and vindictive crowd. ‘Let the law take its proper course!’ vociferated he, while Jamie kept crying, ‘Och now, be aisy, you spalpeens—for there’s more nor me you’ll have to hang, when yees once begins that game, and some that’s your betters, too, and as good as—’ ‘Let the law take its course!’ roared Mr. Brown, so loudly as to drown the voice of the Irishman. ‘Take him away, Charley, as soon as possible. See what a crowd is collecting around here. I’m afraid of a riot.’ Jamie was finally carried down the street, in the centre of a tumultuous mob, some pushing one way, and some another, with fierce hootings, yells, and hisses, that were fairly deafening. A singular impression was left upon the mind of Monteagle by these proceedings, and he commenced the business of the day with a determination to watch closely every thing which was transpiring near him, and to propose to Mr. Vandewater that, in future, some person should sleep in the store every night. Jamie, who had at length, completed the circle of crime by the committing of murder, was lodged in prison, and Monteagle felt somewhat relieved on account of it, as he believed that the man was for some reason, his deadly enemy. He had not yet recognized this man as the one who shot him down in the barge. On that evening, Blodget called upon Monteagle, and appeared to be more affable than ever, talked with him about the robbery and made very minute inquiries about Jamie, whom he thought innocent of any intent to rob.