The remark about violence arose from Miss Scudamore having read in the
little paper which was published once a week at Marlborough an account
of the incident of the stopping of the coach, about which the boys
had agreed to say nothing to her. The paper had described the conduct
of her nephews in the highest terms, but Miss Scudamore was terribly
shocked. "The idea", she said, "that she should have to associate with
boys who had take a fellow-creature's life was terrible to her, and
their conduct in resisting, when grown-up men had given up the idea
as hopeless, showed a violent spirit, which, in boys so young, was
shocking."

A few days after this, as the boys were coming from school, they
passed the carrier's cart, coming in from Marlborough.

"Be you the young gentlemen at Miss Scudamore's?" the man asked.
"Because, if you be, I have got a parcel for you."

Tom answered him that they were, and he then handed them over a heavy
square parcel. Opening it after the cart had gone on, the boys, to
their great delight, found that it consisted of two cases, each
containing a brace of very handsome pistols.

"This is luck, Peter," Tom said. "If the parcel had been sent to the
house, aunt would never have let us have them; now we can take them in
quietly, get some powder and balls, and practice shooting every day in
some quiet place. That will be capital. Do you know I have thought of
a plan which will enrage old Jones horribly, and he will never suspect
us?"

"No; have you, Tom? What is that?"