weren't common by a long sight."

"I referred to the gathering in its social aspect, Solomon,"
explained the judge; "the illiberal spirit that prevailed, which,
I observe, did not escape you."

"Skunks!" said Mahaffy.

"Not a man present had the public spirit to set 'em up," lamented
the judge. "They drank in pairs, and I'd blistered my throat at
their damn jail-raising! What sort of a fizzle would it have
been if I hadn't been on hand to impart distinction to the
occasion ?"

"I don't begrudge 'em their liquor," said Mahaffy with acid
dignity.

"I do," interrupted the judge. "I hope it's poison to 'em.

"It will be in the long run, if it's any comfort to you to know
it."

"It's no comfort, it's not near quick enough," said the judge
relentlessly. The sudden noisy clamor of many voices,
highpitched and excited, floated out to them under the hot sky.
"I wonder--" began the judge, and paused as he saw the crowd
stream into the road before the tavern. Then a cloud of dust
enveloped it, a cloud of dust that came from the trampling of
many pairs of feet, and that swept toward them, thick and
impenetrable, and no higher than a tall man's head in the