“There, now, are our thanks, not merely for your information, but for the good will with which it was given, and that to the very sons of the man whom, by your own account, you have murdered among you.  If his blood however, has been shed, there is not a drop of it for which we will not exact a tenfold retribution.”

They then dashed home, at the highest speed of which their horses were capable, and throwing themselves out of the saddle, rushed to the hall-door, where they knocked eagerly.

“Is my father at home, Letty?”

“Yes, sir, he’s in the parlor.”

“In the parlor,” exclaimed Alick, looking keenly into her face; “what is he doing in the parlor, eh?”

“Why, he’s readin’ a letther, sir.”

“Reading a letter, is he?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Thank God!” exclaimed both the young men, breathing freely; “that will do, Letty—­here, Letty, is half-a-crown for you to buy a ribbon.”

“And another from me, Letty, to buy anything you fancy.”

The girl looked at them with surprise, and for a moment or two seemed at a loss how to account for such evident excitement.  At length she exclaimed:  “By dad, I have it; you won the hunt, gintlemen.”

“Better than that, Letty,” they replied, nodding, and immediately entering the parlor.

“Well, boys,” said the father, “a good day’s sport?”

“Capital, father! are you long home!”

“Since about two o’clock.”

“How did you come?”

“Why, boys, ye must know that either Dr. Turbot or I was fired at to-day.  A bullet—­a pistol bullet—­whistled right between us in the parsonage garden, and the poor frightened doctor refused to come by the usual way, and, in consequence, I was obliged to take the lower road.”

He then entered into a more detailed account of the attempted assassination, and heard from them, in reply, a history of their intelligence and adventure at Murderer’s Corner with Hacket and Bryan, for so the fellows were named.

“Well,” said the proctor, “thank God, things are not so bad as they report, after all; but, in the meantime, the plot appears to be thickening—­here’s more comfort,” he added, handing him the notice which Mogue told him he had found upon the steps of the hall-doer, where, certainly, he had himself left it.  John took the document and read as follows:—­

“TO PROCTOR PURCEL AND HIS HORSE-WHIPPIN’ SONS.

“This is to give you notice, that nothing can save yez.  Look back upon your work an’ see what yez desarve from the counthry.  You began with a farm of sixty acres, and you took farm afther farm over the heads of the poor an’ them that wor strugglin’, until you now have six hundre’ acres in your clutches.  You made use of the strong purse against the wake man; an’ if any one ventured to complain, he was sure to come in for a dose of the horsewhip from your tyrannical sons, or a dose of law from yourself.  Now all that I’ve