im's jaw, but which really
miscarried by a foot. In reply, Jim countered with an awkward swinging
uppercut, which was superior to the chauffeur's blow in one respect
only--it landed fairly on the point of the jaw. The chauffeur staggered
and slowly toppled over into the soft earth which had caused so much of
the rumpus. Newton Bronson slipped behind a hedge, and took his infernally
equipped dog with him. The grader gang formed a ring about the combatants
and waited. Colonel Woodruff, driving toward home in his runabout, held up
by the traffic blockade, asked what was going on here, and the chauffeur,
rising groggily, picked up his goggles, climbed into the car; and the
meeting dissolved, leaving Jim Irwin greatly embarrassed by the fact that
for the first time in his life, he had struck a man in combat.

"Good work, Jim," said Cornelius Bonner. "I didn't think 'twas in ye!"

"It's beastly," said Jim, reddening. "I didn't know, either."

Colonel Woodruff looked at his hired man sharply, gave him some
instructions for the next day and drove on. The road gang dispersed for
the afternoon. Newton Bronson carefully secreted the magic muzzle, and
chuckled at what had been perhaps the most picturesquely successful bit of
deviltry in his varied record. Jim Irwin put out his team, got his supper
and went to the meeting of the school board.

The deadlocked members of the board had been so long at loggerheads that
their relations had swayed back to something like amity. Jim had scarcely
entered when Con Bonner addressed the chair.

"Mr. Prisidint," said he, "we have wid us t'night, a young man who nades
no introduction to an audience in this place, Mr. Jim Irwin. He thinks
we're bullheaded mules, and that all the schools are bad. At the proper
time I shall move that we hire him f'r teacher; and pinding that motion, I
move that he be given the floor. Ye've all heared of Mr. Irwin's ability
as a white hope, and I know he'll be listened to wid respect!"

Much laughter from the board and the spectators, as Jim arose. He looked
upon it as ridicule of himself, while Con Bonner regarded it as a tribute
to his successful speech.

"Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Board," said Jim, "I'm not going to
tell you anything that you don't know about yourselves. You are simply
making a farce of the matter of hiring a teacher for this school. It is
not as if any of you had a theory that the teaching methods of one of
these teachers would be