ver seen such a
band as I have to deal with out in the Twentieth. Why, my God! a man
can't call his name his own any more out here. It's got so now the
newspapers tell everybody what to do."

Alderman Pinski and Alderman Hoherkorn, conferring together in one
corner, were both very dour. "I'll tell you what, Joe," said Pinski to
his confrere; "it's this fellow Lucas that has got the people so
stirred up. I didn't go home last night because I didn't want those
fellows to follow me down there. Me and my wife stayed down-town. But
one of the boys was over here at Jake's a little while ago, and he says
there must 'a' been five hundred people around my house at six o'clock,
already. Whad ye think o' that?"

"Same here. I don't take much stock in this lynching idea. Still, you
can't tell. I don't know whether the police could help us much or not.
It's a damned outrage. Cowperwood has a fair proposition. What's the
matter with them, anyhow?"

Renewed sounds of "Marching Through Georgia" from without.

Enter at this time Aldermen Ziner, Knudson, Revere, Rogers, Tiernan,
and Kerrigan. Of all the aldermen perhaps Messrs. Tiernan and Kerrigan
were as cool as any. Still the spectacle of streets blocked with
people who carried torches and wore badges showing slip-nooses attached
to a gallows was rather serious.

"I'll tell you, Pat," said "Smiling Mike," as they eventually made the
door through throngs of jeering citizens; "it does look a little rough.
Whad ye think?"

"To hell with them!" replied Kerrigan, angry, waspish, determined.
"They don't run me or my ward. I'll vote as I damn please."

"Same here," replied Tiernan, with a great show of courage. "That goes
for me. But it's putty warm, anyhow, eh?"

"Yes, it's warm, all right," replied Kerrigan, suspicious lest his
companion in arms might be weakening, "but that'll never make a quitter
out of me."

"Nor me, either," replied the Smiling One.

Enter now the mayor, accompanied by a fife-and-drum corps rendering
"Hail to the Chief." He ascends the rostrum. Outside in the halls the
huzzas of the populace. In the gallery overhead a picked audience. As
the various aldermen look up they contemplate a sea of unfriendly
faces. "Get on to the mayor's guests," commented one alderman to
another, cynically.

A little sparring for time while minor matters are considered, and the
gallery is given opportunity for comment on the various communal
lights, ident