against them, innocent servitors of a higher power. It was
against the mean dominance of Weedon Moore.

The car passed swiftly on and down the road to town.

Then the men left him as suddenly as trained dogs whistled from their
prey. He felt as if he had been merely detained, gently on the whole, at
the point the master had designated, and looked about for the
interpreter. It seemed to him if he could have speech with that man he
could tell him in a sentence what Weedon Moore was, and charge him not
to deliver these ignorant creatures of another race into his mucky
hands. But if the interpreter was there he could not be distinguished.
Jeff called, a word or two, not knowing what to say, and no one
answered. The crowd that had been eagerly intent on a common purpose, to
get him out of the debating place, split into groups. Individuals
detached themselves, silently and swiftly, and melted away. Jeff heard
their footsteps on the road, and now the voices began, quietly but with
an eager emphasis. He was left alone by the darkened field, for even
the moon, as if she joined the general verdict, slipped under a cloud.

Jeff stood a moment nursing, not his anger, but a clearheaded certainty
that something must be done. Something always had to be done to block
Weedon Moore. It had been so in the old days when Moore was not
dangerous: only dirty. Now he was debasing the ignorant mind. He was a
demagogue. The old never-formulated love for Addington came back to Jeff
in a rush, not recognised as love an hour ago, only the careless
affection of usage, but ready, he knew, to spring into something warmer
when her dear old bulwarks were assailed. You don't usually feel a
romantic passion for your mother. You allow her to feed you and be
patronised by you and stand aside to let victorious youth pass on. But
see unworthy hands touching her worn dress--the hands of Weedon
Moore!--and you snatch it from their grasp.

Jeff still stood there thinking. This, the circus-ground was where he
and the other boys had trysted in a delirious ownership of every
possible "show", where they had met the East and gloated on nature's
poor eccentricities. Now here he was, a man suddenly set in his purpose
to deliver the old town from Weedon Moore. They couldn't suffer it, he
and the rest of the street of solid mansions dating back to ancient
dignities. These foreign children who had come to work for them should
not be bred in disbelief in Addington trad