nd Farr to resume
surly domination over his sweating Italians.

"The martyrs," Etienne had called them. The notion of that stuck in
Farr's brooding thoughts.

He tried to look deeper into his own heart than he had ever looked
before and explain to himself just what motive had attracted him to the
child in the first place; he had never been especially interested in
children before. He found himself muttering, "And a little child shall
lead them," without understanding just why this child had led him so
strangely.

If one Walker Farr had understood it at all and had been able to explain
it to himself, he would have penetrated the mystery of the dynamics of
love--the great gift to humanity that God has not seen fit to expose
in its inner workings. Therefore, Farr strode here and there in the
hot sun, spurred his diggers with crisp oaths, and on the heels of his
profanity muttered to himself, "And a little child shall lead them."

The tile boss of the Consolidated, whose crew was following the
trench-diggers, accosted Farr, after several inspections of his
lugubrious countenance.

"Don't you think you need to be cheered up a little?"

Farr scowled at him.

"I don't know what has disagreed with you, but you're certainly in a bad
way," pursued the boss. "Go up with the crowd to City Hall to-night
and hear 'em open up the police scandals. Plenty of free fun for the
heavy-hearted! There are about half a dozen fat cops in this city who'll
be fried to a crisp on both sides, and the sound of the sizzling will be
pleasant in the ears."

"I'm not interested."

"You will be, if you tend out. The hearing is before the mayor and the
whole city government. Nothing very hefty in the way of charges--only
loafing in beer-coolers during the heat of the day, spending their time
chasing the labor-agitators out of the parks, and letting burglars keep
house all summer in the mansions up-town while the owners are away at
the seashore. It's all more or less of a joke."

"Why don't the mayor and aldermen of this city attend to duty instead of
jokes?"

"Oh, this city is run so smooth that there's nothing to do in the summer
except stage a little farce comedy at City Hall."

"Let me tell you that there's something to be investigated in this city
that isn't a joke," raged Farr, his bitter ponderings blossoming into
speech.

"What's that?"

"Murder going on every day in this damnable town."

"Well, I guess if there was any murder