"That's a lie," Mr. Sweet interrupted, angrily. "He tried to make the boy pay him half he earned on the fair grounds, and has done this thing only because Teddy refused."
"We won't go into the details of the case, because I am not a magistrate," the deacon replied, with a majestic wave of the hand. "Mr. Officer, tell the 'Squire that I am prepared to go bail to any amount, and ask if the business can't be conducted here, for I'm too tired to go out of doors unless it is absolutely necessary."
"What?" the old man screamed. "Will you answer for that little villain's appearance at court?"
"That's what I said, Nathan. This affair is none of my business other than I have stated; but I must say you are goin' a leetle too far, not only in my opinion, but in that of others, an' it may prove a costly job for somebody before it's finished."
The old man was literally speechless.
He could not understand why the deacon should have turned against him so suddenly, and the last words made him decidedly uneasy.
He was not to be silenced without a struggle, however. After the first surprise had died away he said, with a comical assumption of dignity:
"I will see whether I'm to be browbeaten in this manner. The 'Squire does not dare to release the boy on bail, and I shall tell him so."
With these words he left the house hurriedly, and the constable said to the deacon:
"If you will write a line to the 'Squire, saying that you're ready to go bail, I do not think there will be any necessity of troubling you again to-night."