nd getting the feathers
ready."

Sheriff Dowd took advantage of Selectman Grant's preoccupation with
Harnden. He gave off orders to his helpers and they lowered the bars of
the barnyard and started away with the cows.

There was a general disintegration of the group. Mrs. Grant led the
lamenting womenfolk into the house. Mr. Harnden did not really extricate
his nose; Grant twisted so violently that he broke his own grip, and his
victim laced the whip under the horse's belly and escaped.

Within ten minutes Selectman Grant was whipping his own horse in a
direction opposite to that which Harnden had taken. Mr. Grant was hot
after law.

Squire Hexter gave him the law, and cold comfort.

"They can do it, Jared. Outsiders can get hold of unpaid town orders
and put on the screws if they're that heartless. It isn't done once in a
dog's age. But, as I say, it can be done when a creditor is ugly enough.
Harnden didn't say, did he, just who brought the orders?"

"I wouldn't have believed him if he did say! But he didn't say."

"And you don't know the man who secured judgment?"

"Never heard of him."

"I will try to trace the matter, Jared. No, keep your wallet in your
pocket. There's no charge. It's a case where the interests of the
citizens in general are concerned. I'm the regularly elected town agent,
as you know!" The Squire smiled. "I'll take a town order for my pay."
He looked out of the window. "It's about time for somebody else to come
larruping up here after law! Don't hurry, Jared! Wait and hear what's
happened to the neighbors!"

The selectman sat gloomily, elbows squared on his knees, and waited.
Almost opposite the Squire's office the rattle-te-bang business on
Britt's premises was going on.

"I wonder whether Tasper will dare to go ahead and build his palace
after he hears the latest news," suggested the Squire. "You must be
told, Jared, that after the live stock of the town has been thinned
down to the essentials permitted by law, then the farms and general real
estate can be levied on."

Grant lifted his haggard face and stared at the Squire. "Then, outside
of the cook stove and my clothes, I don't know whether I'm worth a
blasted cent, hey? They can dreen me slow with a gimlet, or let it out
all at once with a pod auger, can they? That's what the law can do _to_
me, you say! What can it do _for_ me, Squire Hexter?"

"Well, Jared, they'll take your cows over to the shire and auction them
off for w