But that prophecy did not take into account the state of mind of the
new outlaw of Smyrna.

XXX

At about midnight Cap'n Sproul, snoring peaceably with wide-open
mouth, snapped upright in bed with a jerk that set his teeth into
his tongue and nearly dislocated his neck. He didn't know exactly
what had happened. He had a dizzy, dreaming feeling that he had been
lifted up a few hundred feet in the air and dropped back.

"Land o' Goshen, Aaron, what was it?" gasped his wife. "It sounded
like something blowing up!"

The hint steadied the Cap'n's wits. 'Twas an explosion--that was it!
And with grim suspicion as to its cause, he pulled on his trousers
and set forth to investigate. An old barn on his premises, a
storehouse for an overplus of hay and discarded farming tools, had
been blown to smithereens and lay scattered about under the stars.
And as he picked his way around the ruins with a lantern, cursing
the name of Luce, a far voice hailed him from the gloom of a belt
of woodland: "I ain't an outlaw, hey? I don't dast to be one, hey?
You wait and see."

About an hour later, just as the selectman was sinking into a doze,
he heard another explosion, this time far in the distance--less a
sound than a jar, as of something striking a mighty blow on the earth.

"More dynamite!" he muttered, recognizing that explosive's
down-whacking characteristic. And in the morning Hiram Look hurried
across to inform him that some miscreant had blown up an empty
corn-house on his premises, and that the explosion had shattered all
the windows in the main barn and nearly scared Imogene, the elephant,
into conniptions. "And he came and hollered into my bedroom window
that he'd show me whuther he could be an outlaw or not," concluded
the old showman. "I tell you that critter is dangerous, and you've
got to get him. Instead of quietin' down he'll be growin' worse."

There were eleven men in Smyrna, besides Zeburee Nute, who held
commissions as constables, and those valiant officers Cap'n Sproul
called into the first selectman's office that forenoon. He could not
tell them any news. The whole of Smyrna was ringing with the
intelligence that Aholiah Luce had turned outlaw and was on the
rampage.

The constables, however, could give Selectman Sproul some news. They
gave it to him after he had ordered them to surround Mr. Luce and
take him, dynamite and all. This news was to the effect that they
had resigned.

"We've talked it o