rking out of the race's destiny--is that the whole can't
improve so long as the parts don't grow. So long as we all are like
John Barclay save in John's courage to do wrong, laws won't help us
much, and putting John in jail won't do so very much--though it may
scare the cowards until John's kind of crime grows unpopular. But what
we must have is individual--"

Tinkle goes the bell over Watts McHurdie's head--the bell tied to a
cord that connects with the front door. Down jumps Watts, and note the
play of the lights from the flies, observe that spot light moving
toward R. U. E., there by the door of the shop. Yes, all ready; enter
John Barclay. See that iron smile on his face; he has not surrendered.
He has been clean-shaven, and entering that door, he is as spick and
span as though he were on a wedding journey. Give him a hand or a hiss
as you will, ladies and gentlemen, John Barclay has entered at the
Right Upper Entrance, and the play may proceed.

"Well," he grinned, "I suppose you are talking it over. Colonel, has
the jury come to a verdict yet?"

What a suave John Barclay it was; how admirably he held his nerve; not
a quiver in the face, not a ruffle of the voice. The general looked at
him over his spectacles, and could not keep the kindness out of his
eyes. "What a brick you are!" he said to himself, and Jake Dolan,
conquered by the simplicity of it, surrendered.

"Oh, well, John, I suppose we all have our little troubles," said
Jake. Only that; the rack of the inquisitor grew limp. And Colonel
Culpepper rose and gave Barclay his hand and spoke not a word. The
silence was awkward, and at the end of a few moments the colonel found
words.

"How," he asked in his thick asthmatic voice, mushy with emotion, "how
in the world did this happen, John? How did it happen?"

Barclay looked at the general; no, he did not glare, for John Barclay
had grown tame during the night, almost docile, one would say. But he
did not answer at first, and Watts McHurdie, bending over his work,
chuckled out: "Ten miles from Springfield, madam--ten miles from
Springfield." And then John sloughed off thirty years and laughed. And
the general laughed, and the colonel smiled, and Jake Dolan took John
Barclay's hand from the colonel, and said:--

"The court adjudges that the prisoner at the bar pay the assembled
company four of those cigars in his inside pocket, and stand committed
until the same is paid."

And then there was a scratchi