uiet was restored, the reading was resumed--as follows:

"'GO, AND REFORM--OR, MARK MY WORDS--SOME DAY, FOR YOUR SINS YOU WILL
DIE AND GO TO HELL OR HADLEYBURG--TRY AND MAKE IT THE FORMER.'"

A ghastly silence followed. First an angry cloud began to settle darkly
upon the faces of the citizenship; after a pause the cloud began to
rise, and a tickled expression tried to take its place; tried so hard
that it was only kept under with great and painful difficulty; the
reporters, the Brixtonites, and other strangers bent their heads down
and shielded their faces with their hands, and managed to hold in by
main strength and heroic courtesy. At this most inopportune time burst
upon the stillness the roar of a solitary voice--Jack Halliday's:

"THAT'S got the hall-mark on it!"

Then the house let go, strangers and all. Even Mr. Burgess's gravity
broke down presently, then the audience considered itself officially
absolved from all restraint, and it made the most of its privilege.
It was a good long laugh, and a tempestuously wholehearted one, but it
ceased at last--long enough for Mr. Burgess to try to resume, and for
the people to get their eyes partially wiped; then it broke out again,
and afterward yet again; then at last Burgess was able to get out these
serious words:

"It is useless to try to disguise the fact--we find ourselves in the
presence of a matter of grave import. It involves the honour of your
town--it strikes at the town's good name. The difference of a single
word between the test-remarks offered by Mr. Wilson and Mr. Billson
was itself a serious thing, since it indicated that one or the other of
these gentlemen had committed a theft--"

The two men were sitting limp, nerveless, crushed; but at these words
both were electrified into movement, and started to get up.

"Sit down!" said the Chair, sharply, and they obeyed. "That, as I have
said, was a serious thing. And it was--but for only one of them. But the
matter has become graver; for the honour of BOTH is now in formidable
peril. Shall I go even further, and say in inextricable peril? BOTH left
out the crucial fifteen words." He paused. During several moments he
allowed the pervading stillness to gather and deepen its impressive
effects, then added: "There would seem to be but one way whereby this
could happen. I ask these gentlemen--Was there COLLUSION?--AGREEMENT?"

A low murmur sifted through the house; its import was, "He's got them
both."

Bi