Estelle's eyes opened wide as the meaning of his last sentence
penetrated her mind.

"You mean--that all of us won't--"

"I'm going to take care of you," Arthur said gravely, "but there
are liable to be lively doings around here when people begin to
realize they're really in a tight fix for food. I'm going to get
Van Deventer to help me organize a police band to enforce martial
law. We mustn't have any disorder, that's certain, and I don't
trust a city-bred man in a pinch unless I know him."

He stooped and picked up a revolver from the floor, left there
by one of the bank watchmen when he fled, in the belief that the
building was falling.




VII.


Arthur stood at the window of his office and stared out toward the
west. The sun was setting, but upon what a scene!

Where, from this same window Arthur had seen the sun setting behind
the Jersey hills, all edged with the angular roofs of factories,
with their chimneys emitting columns of smoke, he now saw the same
sun sinking redly behind a mass of luxuriant foliage. And where
he was accustomed to look upon the tops of high buildings--each