cost, a quantity of pig-iron ample for the purpose left this
hypothesis unavoidable, for Westley winked flagrantly and leered when he
voiced it.

But a retribution subtler than mere drowning awaited the superfluous
Potts; a retribution so simple of mechanism, so swift, so potent, and
wrought with a talent so masterly, that the right of its instigator to
the title of Boss of Little Arcady seemed to be unassailable for all
future time.

At the very zenith of his heavenward flight Potts was brought low. At
the very nethermost point of his downward swoop Solon Denney was raised
to a height so dizzy that even the erstwhile sceptic spirit of Westley
Keyts abased itself before him, frankly conceding that diplomacy's
innocent and mush-like surface might conceal springs of a terrible
potency.

Though Solon's public mien for a week or more had been hint enough of
his secret to those who knew him well, I was, possibly, the first to
whom he confided it in words.

He sent for me one crisp October morning, and I rushed over to the
_Argus_ office, knowing that he must have matters of importance to
communicate.

I found him pacing the little sanctum, scanning a still damp sheet of
proof. His brow was furrowed, but the lines were those of conscious
power. In the broken chair by the littered desk sat Billy Durgin, his
eyes ablaze with the lust of the chase. As I pushed into the dingy
little room Solon halted in his walk and, with a flourish that did not
entirely lack the dramatic, he handed me the narrow strip of paper. The
item was brief.

"Mrs. J. Rodney Potts, the estimable wife of Colonel J. Rodney Potts of
this town, will arrive here from the East next Thursday to make her home
among us."

I looked up, to find them eager for my comment.

"Is it true?" I asked.

"It is," said Solon. "I shall meet the lady on the arrival of the
eleven-eight train next Thursday."

"Well--what of it?"

"We are now about to see 'what of it.' My trusty and fearless young
lieutenant here"--he indicated Billy, who coughed in his hand and looked
modestly out the window--"is now about to beard Potts in his den and
find out 'what of it.' I may say that we hope there will be a good deal
of it. I gather as much from the correspondence of the last three weeks
with the lady referred to in that simple galley proof, which I set up
and pulled with my own hands. In this opinion I am not alone. It is
shared by my able and dauntless young coadjutor, bef