“I shall tell him a few things myself,” stormed the judge.  “It’s all very well for him to put on his high-and-mighty tolerant air about the state of things hereabouts, and to keep on saying, soothingly, that everything will come right after a while, as it does in all new countries; but neither he nor any honest man can afford to handle pitch.  It sticks to the cleanest hands.  See that you keep yours out of it.  Nobody belonging to me shall be smirched—­and just now, too, when we are going to cleanse the whole country of it at last, thank God!  We have only been waiting for a chance to carry out the plan which was arranged while General Jackson was here.  Joe Daviess has now found the opportunity, and our campaign has already begun.  He is determined to put it in motion before he leaves for Tippecanoe—­”

“Then he is really going?” broke in William, quickly, with a marked change of tone and manner.

The judge paid no attention to the question.  He seldom noticed what his nephew said, and his thoughts were now solely of the undertaking which absorbed him heart and soul.  After thinking deeply in silence for a few moments, he spoke of the plan more fully, even freely, as he was in the habit of speaking in the bosom of his own family.  There was no one else present; even the servants were gone out of the room.  Moreover, he had been drinking, as his nephew suspected, and the stimulant, together with the excitement, carried him beyond all prudence.  He did not even lower his tone.

“Yes, we begin the good work this very night.  We’ve got the chance we have been waiting for—­the chance to catch those cutthroats red-handed!  We had news yesterday that three men were coming over the Wilderness Road, bringing a large sum of money to buy land.  The negotiation has been under way for weeks.  We have learned that this fact, and the time when these men are expected to pass through here, are both as well known at Duff’s Fort as they are to us.  We have also had news of the coming of a large flatboat with a rich cargo, which is due to pass down the river by Duff’s Fort some time during to-morrow night.  Those hungry demons are said to be ready and waiting for the travellers by land and water—­and we are ready and waiting for them!  Just let them lift a hand to rob or murder, and we will be on hand, too!  The attorney-general has sent a large posse of picked men down the river to come up overland on the further side of the fort.  Another posse has gone round by the swamp to guard that quarter, and there is a boat in readiness on the other side of the river, well armed and fully manned.  Yes, we’ve got the scoundrels safe enough this time!  We’ve run them to earth at last.  There is only one loophole, and the attorney-general himself is to guard that—­the path round Anvil Rock.  That is the band’s highway.  The rock is their rallying-point and we couldn’t see at first how we were to watch it without putting the scoundrels on their guard.  To send any number of men, even