Page:Hugh Pendexter--Tiberius Smith.djvu/161

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WHEN LUNACY WAS TRUMPS

to captivity for three days and will wind up by waiting on a foolish counter for life. Now, sirrah, hark ye. We leave this place to-night. If ye ever want to see Brabant again, silence!'

"‘How are we to work it, Tib?' I inquired; for the quaintness of our peril was getting into my bones.

"‘I'm Monmouth until we get back to Bean-Brabant,' reminded Tib, simply. 'Well, Earl, I shall try to start a revolution.'

"As he said this a hearty hammering caused us to creep to the window on the other side of the building and steal a peep. And what do you think, sir! Why, those poor, hard-hearted idiots were building a gibbet! It simply swept the drummer off his feet.

"‘Oh, Monmouth,' he wailed, 'save this one fool! What an idiot I was, with all the United States to live in, that I had to come down here to be slaughtered by a counterfeit!'

"‘Well, well,' murmured Tib, pursing up his lips and drawing up his rotund form. 'This does look kind of serious. We must get word to Beanville, yet the guards won't allow one of us to slip through the window and there's no one to carry a message Odd situation, isn't it?'

"‘I say, you fellers—I mean, Monmouth,' called out the guard, poking his head into the window—'King James has just broken up his council and

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