s
expression as he listened, one must have inferred that his personal
standards were savage beyond belief. At first he showed only amusement,
as if presently he might snort with mirth. His mouth worked like a worm,
stretching in a grin, then a sneer. But when at last the three-cornered
conversation within ended and the Judge's voice alone reached him, his
whole body seemed to stiffen. He clenched his fat fists. Amazement fled
before rage upon that furious face, perspiration streamed from every
pore. His eyes shot this way and that like black bullets. No other man
in the world can become so infuriated as the coward, for the brave man
knows that he can satisfy his anger. He reserves it as a force to use in
vengeance. He is temperate in that. But the worm-soul, which must crawl
and be satisfied with merely stinging the heel of his enemy, knows no
such temperance. He is the victim of his impotent fury.

Mike Prim was such a worm now, and it seemed that he must be consumed.
He was a hideous conflagration flaming against the door of the Judge's
office, scarcely touching it with his huge bulk, his mind leaping to
seize upon every sound from within.

Suddenly, without taking time to stand erect, he sprang back and fled,
his legs working like those of an enormous cat, with noiseless
swiftness. His door closed as gently as a feather blown in the wind, and
the next moment Prim had seized his 'phone.

"Two-five-six! yes, Acres's store! What? Not in? Well, damn him!" he
muttered, as he rattled the receiver and began again.

"Give me the National Bank, Central! What? The number? You know the
number! yes, five-two-four! What? Bank closed? I don't give a hang if it
is. Coleman's in his office. Saw him there myself."

During the next hour Mr. Michael Prim called the telephone number of
every prominent citizen in Jordantown. Treason was abroad in the air,
much treason, that was conducted by Prim. And something akin to treason
apparently was still going on in the Judge's office.

Meanwhile the streets of the town had taken on a lighter, more frivolous
aspect. Prettily dressed women were mincing along the pavements, their
parasols bobbing up and down like variegated mushrooms. They bowed,
smiled coquettishly at the men. The men swept off their hats and
smirked. All of them were lovers after the manner of lovers in the
South. That is to say, they adored all women, and these ladies were
accustomed to being loved after the manner of Sou