n within the city limits after daylight, and for
failing to observe that three policemen were not too distant from the
scene of operations to engage therein.

"Happy, if ye had it in mind to harm him," said the red-bearded man to
Mr. Fear, upon the latter's return to society, "why didn't ye do it out
here at the Beach?"

"Because," returned the indiscreet, "he didn't say what he was goin' to
say till we got in town."

Extraordinary probing on the part of the prosecutor had developed at
the trial that the obnoxious speech had referred to the guest of the
evening. The assaulted party, one "Nashville" Cory, was not of Canaan,
but a bit of drift-wood haply touching shore for the moment at Beaver
Beach; and--strange is this world--he had been introduced to the
coterie of Mike's Place by Happy Fear himself, who had enjoyed a brief
acquaintance with him on a day when both had chanced to travel
incognito by the same freight. Naturally, Happy had felt responsible
for the proper behavior of his protege--was, in fact, bound to enforce
it; additionally, Happy had once been saved from a term of imprisonment
(at a time when it would have been more than ordinarily inconvenient)
by help and advice from Joe, and he was not one to forget. Therefore he
was grieved to observe that his own guest seemed to be somewhat jealous
of the hero of the occasion and disposed to look coldly upon him. The
stranger, however, contented himself with innuendo (mere expressions of
the face and other manner of things for which one could not squarely
lay hands upon him) until such time as he and his sponsor had come to
Main Street in the clear dawn on their way to Happy's apartment--a
variable abode. It may be that the stranger perceived what Happy did
not; the three bluecoats in the perspective; at all events, he now put
into words of simple strength the unfavorable conception he had formed
of Joe. The result was mediaevally immediate, and the period of Mr.
Cory's convalescence in the hospital was almost half that of his
sponsor's detention in the county jail.

It needed nothing to finish Joe with the good people of Canaan; had it
needed anything, the trial of Happy Fear would have overspilled the
necessity. An item of the testimony was that Joseph Louden had helped
to carry one of the ladies present--a Miss Le Roy, who had fainted--to
the open air, and had jostled the stranger in passing. After this, the
oldest woman in Canaan would not have dared