it was not till the crowd had waited an hour outside the court that the
secret leaked out. The outwitted men were in a fury. The mounted police
lined the sides of the street, and their impassive demeanour seemed to
rouse the mob to fresh anger. There had been a plan to rescue Big Todd,
now it was too late, and men looked at one another in sullen wrath. The
crowd drifted off towards the railway station, thinking to welcome
Medland. The Mounted Volunteers were on guard there. They saw Kilshaw at
the head of his company and hailed him with a groan. Behind the ranks,
the Governor sat on his horse, flanked by his _aides-de-camp_ and
talking to Sir Robert Perry. No one was allowed within the station-yard,
every one was compelled to move about, the preparations were complete,
to riot would be to run against a stone wall.

Suddenly an idea, a suggestion, flew through the crowd. It was greeted
with surly smiles and emphatic nods. To the surprise of the officers and
of the Governor, the crowd began to melt away. Splitting up in twos and
threes, it sauntered off, as if it had made up its mind to submit
quietly to the inevitable. Soon only women and children were left, and
the Governor began to feel that the array of force was almost
ridiculously out of proportion to the need. The whole thing was, as
Captain Heseltine regretfully observed, "fizzling out," and he proposed
to go home to lunch.

Medland's train arrived half-an-hour later, and he came out of the
station, looking round in surprise at the martial aspect of the scene.
Then he smiled.

"We look rather asses," whispered Heseltine. "I wonder if they did it on
purpose."

Medland came down the steps and found himself almost face to face with
Kilshaw. The ex-Premier was smoking a cigar, and he took it out of his
mouth, in order to smile more freely.

"If," he said to Kilshaw, "it's not dangerous to public order, I should
like a cab."

Kilshaw heard a shamefaced, stifled giggle from his men behind him and
turned very red. The next minute Sir Robert came up, holding out his
hand.

"This is a great compliment to you," he said, smiling.

"Evidently beyond my deserts," answered Medland, getting into his cab.
"To my house," he called to the man, and was driven rapidly away.

The Governor rode up to Sir Robert with a look of vexation on his face.

"The sooner we end this farce the better," he said. "I'm going home. I
suppose you'll send the men to quarters."

"I really