"'For God's sake, Lancy,' said my uncle, steppin' forward, 'let him go.'
"At that Lancy said: 'He's right enough. It's not the first time aw've
choked a coward. Throw cold water on him and gi' 'im brandy.'
"Sure enough, he wasn't dead. Lancy stood there watchin' us while we
fetched Faddo back, and I tell you, that was a narrow squeak for him.
When he got his senses again, and was sittin' there lookin' as if he'd
been hung and brought back to life, Lancy says to him: 'There, Jim Faddo,
aw've done wi' you as a man, and at twelve o'clock aw'll begin wi' you as
King's officer.' And at that, with a good-night to my uncle and all of
us, he turns on his heels and leaves the Book-in-Hand.
"I tell you, Cousin Fanny, though I'd been ripe for quarrel wi' Lancy
Doane myself that night, I could ha' took his hand like a brother, for I
never saw a man deal fairer wi' a scoundrel than he did wi' Jim Faddo.
You see, it wasn't what Faddo said about himself that made Laney wild,
but that about his brother Tom; and a man doesn't like his brother spoken
ill of by dirt like Faddo, be it true or false. And of Laney's brother
I'm goin' to write further on in this letter, for I doubt that you know
all I know about him, and the rest of what happened that night and
afterwards."
"DEAR COUSIN FANNY, I canna write all I set out to, for word come to me,
just as I wrote the last sentence above, that the ship was to leave port
three days sooner than was fixed for when I began.
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