"Oh, THAT'S where you went!" said Maggie, addressing the fire.
"Since when hev you tuk partnership with the Guv'nment and Kernel
Preston to hunt up and take keer of their property?"

"Well, I ain't goin' to hev such wreckage as they pick up and
enlist set adrift on our marshes, Mag," said Jim decidedly.

"What would you hev done had you ketched him?" said Maggie, looking
suddenly into her brother's face.

"Given him a dose of snipe-shot that he'd remember, and be thankful
it wasn't slugs," said Jim promptly. Observing a deeper
seriousness in her attitude, he added, "Why, if it was in war-time
he'd get a BALL from them sodgers on sight."

"Yes; but YOU ain't got no call to interfere," said Maggie.

"Ain't I? Why, he's no better than an outlaw. I ain't sure that
he hasn't been stealin' or killin' somebody over theer."

"Not that man!" said Maggie impulsively.

"Not what man?" said her brother, facing her quickly.

"Why," returned Maggie, repairing her indiscretion with feminine
dexterity, "not ANY man who might have knocked you and me over on
the marshes in the dusk, and grabbed our guns."

"Wish he'd hev tried it," said the brother, with a superior smile,