ments when
the mind and courage are overwhelmed by panic that reason does not
pause to analyze.

VIII

Louada Murilla opened the front door when the chief constable knocked,
after an exasperatingly elaborate hitching and blanketing of horses.
She staggered to the door rather than walked. The Cap'n sat with rigid
legs still extended toward the fire.

The three men filed into the room, and remained standing in solemn
row. Mr. Nute, on behalf of the delegation, refused chairs that were
offered by Mrs. Sproul. He had his own ideas as to how a committee
of notification should conduct business. He stood silent and looked
at Louada Murilla steadily and severely until she realized that her
absence was desired.

She tottered out of the room, her terrified eyes held in lingering
thrall by the woe-stricken orbs of the Cap'n.

Constable Nute eyed the door that she closed, waiting a satisfactory
lapse of time, and then cleared his throat and announced:

"I want you to realize, Cap'n Sproul, that me and my feller constables
here has been put in a sort of a hard position. I hope you'll consider
that and govern yourself accordin'. First of all, we're obeyin'
orders from them as has authority. I will say, however, that I have
ideas as to how a thing ought to be handled, and my associates have
agreed to leave the talkin' to me. I want to read you somethin'
first," he said, fumbling at the buttons on his coat, "but that you
may have some notion as to what it all points and be thinkin' it over,
I'll give you a hint. To a man of your understandin', I don't s'pose
I have to say more than 'Cincinnatus,' That one word explains itself
and our errunt."

"I never knowed his last name," mumbled the Cap'n, enigmatically.
"But I s'pose they've got it in the warrant, all right!" He was eying
the hand that was seeking the constable's inside pocket. "I never
was strong on Portygee names. I called him Joe."

Mr. Nute merely stared, without trying to catch the drift of this
indistinct muttering.

While the Cap'n watched him in an agony of impatience and suspense,
he slowly drew out a spectacle-case, settled his glasses upon his
puffy nose, unfolded a sheet of paper on which a dirty newspaper
clipping was pasted, and began to read:

"More than ever before in the history of the United States of America
are loyal citizens called upon to throw themselves into the breach
of municipal affairs, and wrest from the hands of the guilty--"