e." When
quiet was restored, the reading was resumed--as follows:

"'_Go, and reform--or, mark my words--some day, for your sins you will
die and go to hell or Hadleyburg_--TRY AND MAKE IT THE FORMER.'"

A ghastly silence followed. First an angry cloud began to settle darkly
upon the faces of the citizenship; after a pause the cloud began to rise,
and a tickled expression tried to take its place; tried so hard that it
was only kept under with great and painful difficulty; the reporters, the
Brixtonites, and other strangers bent their heads down and shielded their
faces with their hands, and managed to hold in by main strength and
heroic courtesy. At this most inopportune time burst upon the stillness
the roar of a solitary voice--Jack Halliday's:

"_That's_ got the hall-mark on it!"

Then the house let go, strangers and all. Even Mr. Burgess's gravity
broke down presently, then the audience considered itself officially
absolved from all restraint, and it made the most of its privilege. It
was a good long laugh, and a tempestuously wholehearted one, but it
ceased at last--long enough for Mr. Burgess to try to resume, and for the
people to get their eyes partially wiped; then it broke out again, and
afterward yet again; then at last Burgess was able to get out these
serious words:

"It is useless to try to disguise the fact--we find ourselves in the
presence of a matter of grave import. It involves the honour of your
town--it strikes at the town's good name. The difference of a single
word between the test-remarks offered by Mr. Wilson and Mr. Billson was
itself a serious thing, since it indicated that one or the other of these
gentlemen had committed a theft--"

The two men were sitting limp, nerveless, crushed; but at these words
both were electrified into movement, and started to get up.

"Sit down!" said the Chair, sharply, and they obeyed. "That, as I have
said, was a serious thing. And it was--but for only one of them. But
the matter has become graver; for the honour of _both_ is now in
formidable peril. Shall I go even further, and say in inextricable
peril? _Both_ left out the crucial fifteen words." He paused. During
several moments he allowed the pervading stillness to gather and deepen
its impressive effects, then added: "There would seem to be but one way
whereby this could happen. I ask these gentlemen--Was there
_collusion_?--_agreement_?"

A low murmur sifted through the house; its i