e uncle Lenwell
suffered eruption, Vesuviously; and the third man of us just cowed down,
and shriveled up, and tried to slip out in the hole where the
electric-light wire comes through the wall. But I fetched him back with
a button-hook, knowin' he'd get lost in that wide passageway and his
remains never be recovered to his family."

It was not, however, just a family matter now among the Lenwells. In the
presence of the superintendent and Mrs. Bahrr, Miss Swaim was called to
trial by her peers--the board of education. In this executive session,
whose proceedings were not ever to be breathed--for York Macpherson
would have the last man of them put in jail, he was that
influential--_Other Things Were Made Known_--Things that, after the
final settlement, became in time common property, and so forgotten.

Herein Stellar Bahrr's three years of pent-up anger at last found vent.
She had been preparing for this event. She had adroitly set the trap for
the first difficulty, that had its start in the Lenwell family, while
she was doing their spring sewing. Incessantly and insidiously she laid
her mines and strung her wires and stored her munitions, determined to
settle once for all with the pretty, stuck-up girl who had held a whip
over her for three whole years.

Charges were to be brought against Miss Swaim of a _serious_ character,
and she was to be tried and condemned in _secret session_ and allowed to
_leave_ the town _quietly_. _Nothing_ would be said _aloud_ until she
was _gone_.

In despair, Ponk sought York Macpherson two hours before the trial
began.

"There's two against me. And no matter what I _say_, they'll outvote me.
It's the durned infernal ballot-box that's a curse to a free
government. If it wasn't for that, republics would flourish. Bein' an
uncrowned king don't keep a man from bein' a plain short-eared
jackass--and they's three of us of the same breed--two against one."

York's face was gray with anger, and he clutched his fingers in his wavy
hair as if to get back the hold on himself.

"You will have your trial, of course. Demand two things--that the
accused and the accusers meet face to face. It will be hard on Jerry."

"Has she flinched or fell down once in three years, York Macpherson?
Ain't she stronger and handsomer to-day than she was the day I had the
honor to bring her up from the depot in that new gadabout of mine? If I
could I'd have had it framed and hung on the wall and kept, for what i