and dread as he watched his brother, while Peterkin continued:

'When Mary Jane came to go home, her things wa'n't there, and the pin
was missin'; and Lucy, the girl, said she found the boy pullin' them
over by himself, when he had no call to be in there; and, sir, there
ain't a lawyer in the United States that would refuse a writ on that
evidence, and I'll get one of St. Claire afore to-morrow night. I told
'em so, the widder and the boy, who was as brassy as you please, and
faced me down and said he never seen the pin, nor knowed there was one;
while she--wall, I swow, if she didn't start round lively for a woman
with her leg bandaged up in vinegar and flannel. When I called the brat
a thief and said I'd have him arrested, she made for the door and
ordered me out--me, Joe Peterkin, of the 'Liza Ann! I'll make her smart,
though, wus than the rheumatiz. I'll make her feel the heft--'

He did not have time to finish the sentence, for the tiger in Arthur was
fully roused, and with a bound toward Peterkin he opened the door, and,
in a voice which seemed to fill the room, although it was only a
whisper, he said:

'Clown! loafer! puff-ball! Leave my house instantly, and never enter it
again until you have apologized to Mrs. Crawford and her grandson for
the insult offered them by your vile accusations. If it were not for
soiling my hands, I would throw you down the steps,' he continued, as he
stood holding the door open, and looking with his flashing eyes and
dilated nostrils, as if he were fully equal to anything.

Like most men of the boasting sort, Peterkin was a coward, and though he
probably had twice the strength of Arthur, he went through the door-way
out upon the piazza, where he stopped, and, with a flourish of his fist,