iness I'm paid
to transact it gets transacted. I might have given these people a few
more days if you had not come sticking your oar in here. But now I
propose to show you! I'll have 'em off here by nightfall, and every
shack burned to the ground."

"Do you mean to say you're going to rub it into these poor folks just
because I have tried to say something to help them?"

"I'll show you and them that it isn't safe to monkey with the state when
the state gets started."

"Oh, the state be condemned!" exploded Mayo, feeling his own temper
getting away from him. "This isn't the state--it's a case of a man's
swelled head!"

"Get off this island, you and your meddlers," commanded the agent.

"Yes, when we are ready to leave, sir."

Mayo was wondering at his own obstinacy. He knew that a rather boyish
temper, resentment roused by the other man's arrogance, had considerable
to do with his stand in the matter, but underneath there was protest
at the world's injustice. He felt that he had been having personal
experience with that injustice. He knew that he had not come out to Hue
and Cry to volunteer as the champion of these unfortunates, but now
that he was there and had spoken out it was evident that he must allow
himself to be forced into the matter to some extent; the agent had
declared in the hearing of all that this interference had settled the
doom of the islanders. Polly Candage was standing close to the champion,
and she looked at him with eyes that flashed with pride in him and
spirit of her own. She reached and took one of the frightened children
by the hand.

"If I have been a little hasty in my remarks I apologize," pleaded the
captain, anxious to repair the fault. "I don't mean to interfere with
your duty. I have no right to do so!"

"You hear what your friend says, after getting you into the mess,"
shouted the agent, so that all might hear. "Now he is getting ready to
trot away and leave you in your trouble."

"You are wrong there, my friend. If you are angry with me, go ahead and
have your quarrel with me. Don't bang at me over the shoulders of these
poor folks. It isn't a square deal."

"They go off to-day--and they go because you have butted into the
matter. The whole of you have got to be shown that the state doesn't
stand for meddlers after orders have been given." Then he added, with
malice: "You folks better ride this chap down to the beach on a rail.
Whatever happens to you is his fault!"

Thi