e to be squdged too fur. And
that's the whole trouble. I've got a hankerin' for strorb'ries. They
may make me more supple. P'raps not, but it's wuth tryin'."

He tossed the cans into his sack in a perfectly reckless manner, until
Broadway was sick and hiccuping with fear. "Love o' Lordy," he
pleaded, "don't act that way. It's apt to go off--go off any time.
I know the stuff better'n you do--I've dealt in it. Ain't I usin'
you square on goods?"

"Mebbe so," admitted Mr. Luce. "Fur's you know, you are. But the
trouble with me is my disposition. It ain't been made supple yet.
If you've got in stock what my appetite craves I may be more supple
next time I come."

He dug a tender strip out of the centre of a hanging codfish, and
walked out. Parading his ease of spirits and contempt for humanity
in general, he stood on the platform and gnawed at the fish and gazed
serenely on the broken windows.

"I done it," he mumbled, admiringly. "I showed 'em! It won't take
much more showin', and then they'll let me alone, and I'll live happy
ever after. Wonder is I hadn't reelized it before. Tail up, and
everybody stands to one side. Tail down, and everybody is tryin' to
kick you. If it wa'n't for that streak in human nature them devilish
trusts that I've heard tell of couldn't live a minit." He saw men
standing afar and staring at him apprehensively. "That's right, ding
baste ye," he said, musingly, "look up to me and keep your distance!
It don't make no gre't diff'runce how it's done, so long as I can
do it."

And after further triumphant survey of the situation, he went away.

"Hiram," said Cap'n Sproul, with decision, turning from a long survey
of Mr. Luce's retreating back through a broken window of the town
house, "this thing has gone jest as far as it's goin'."

"Well," declared the showman with some bitterness, "to have them
that's in authority stand round here and let one bow-legged lunatic
blow up this whole town piecemeal ain't in any ways satisfyin' to
the voters. I hear the talk, and I'm givin' it to you straight as
a friend."

"I've got my plan all made," said the first selectman. "I want you
as foreman to call out the Ancient and Honer'ble Firemen's
Association and have 'em surround them woods, and we'll take him."

"We will, hey?" demanded Hiram, pushing back his plug hat and
squinting angrily. "What do you think that firemen's association is
for, anyway?"

"Never knew it to do anything but eat free picnics