The advocate., 1895-05-08

power but we permitted you to go free andyou used
your opportunity to plot against lives For this
coWardly instrument of yours pointing to Dobbnsl
we have only contempt We have had him amongst
us longer than we desired his company, and my sug
geston to him is that he should lose no time in seek
ing his parents guardians and relieving their pain
full anxiety by telling what happened to him. You
can go. You had better CO."
And Dobbins went.
GAS for you, gentlemen" resumed Sydney, "you
are Of more Importance. Your continued presence
here with your persistence is a menace to be no
longer endured. If you immediately adjourn with
out day and leave town, can and will protect you
from harm; but If you hesitate-if you attempt to
adjourn again to a future day-the consequences be
upon your own heads, for neither will nor can in
sure your safety. So to put an end to business it
were folly to procrsstinate, have to announce to
you that you are our prisoners. If you forthwith
adjourn without day. you will be free upon leaving
Worcester. If you hesitate, you will be separately
confined and held as hostages No answer on your
part is desired. You have one minute in which to
act. In the meantime"
At his signal two armed men stood behind the
chair of each Judge. Almost Immediately the Chief
Justice directed the sheriff to declare the Court ad
journed without day.
A lustY, exultant cheer went up as soon as the
proclamation was heard-a cheer from hundreds of
men to many of whom the simple proclamation
meant that they were secure from prison, and their
homes safe from harsh, pitiless creditors for time
at least. The sullen look upon the faces of the men
gave place to smies anger gave way to good humOr;
and the people who, moment before, could scarce
be restrained from sssaulting the judges now
pressed about them to thank them for adjourning.
The jurists, who had found themselves confronted
by condition. not theory, and did not like the ap-
pearance of the condition, went to their respective
lodgings, each escorted by "guard of HONOR" and
having collected their belongings, left town within
half an hour.
When the Chief Justice, with his rebel guard,
reached StilWelEs house he entered and briefly ex
planned that the message to the governor had been
intercepted, that the messenger had been prisoner
all night that militia could be expected that the
rebel force had doubled since yesterday and that the
Court, under compulsion, had adjourned without
day, StilWe[ Who knowing how he was hated had
not dared to stir abroad was speechless with rage
at this recital; and the surgeon who had called to
look after Dobbns' wound bled the rich old man to
prevent apoplexy The Chief Justice bade them all
goodbye and left the house escorted by his guard of
honor, and upon witnessing the spectacle, StilWell
was threatened with apoplexy again.
1t was Dobbins' chance now to tell of his adven-
lures and hair-breadth escape, and not even Fal-
stsfS account of his heroic conflict with the men in
buckram, was more graphic or more reckless of con-
sequences to the TRUTH than was the narrative Dob
bins drew from his imagination. A hundred men
at least had stopped the stage Dobbins had snatched
a musket from one of "the low-born towards and
had fought with prodigious valor and prowess till,
overcome by sheer force of numbers, the message
had been wrested from his grasp, while he bresthed
bold defiance to the last. Particularly had he made
"thst fellow, Sydney Stone, quail" and given him
such drubbing as he was not likely soon to forget
Then Dobbins told how the ''pusillanimous" judges
had yielded to the insolent demand of ''that brag
ging coward, Sydney Stone," and had adjourned
leaving the honest debts of men of property at the