him it seemed they went by while he stood far aside and could not even see
them move. He did not consider the life he led an exciting one; but the
other citizens of Carlow did when he undertook a war against the "White
Caps." The natives were much more afraid of the "White Caps" than he was;
they knew more about them and understood them better than he did.




CHAPTER II


THE STRANGE LADY

IT was June. From the patent inner columns of the "Carlow County Herald"
might be gleaned the information (enlivened by cuts of duchesses) that the
London season had reached a high point of gaiety; and that, although the
weather had grown inauspiciously warm, there was sufficient gossip for the
thoughtful. To the rapt mind of Miss Selina Tibbs came a delicious moment
of comparison: precisely the same conditions prevailed in Plattville.

Not unduly might Miss Selina lay this flattering unction to her soul, and
well might the "Herald" declare that "Carlow events were crowding thick
and fast." The congressional representative of the district was to deliver
a lecture at the court-house; a circus was approaching the county-seat,
and its glories would be exhibited "rain or shine"; the court had cleared
up the docket by sitting to unseemly hours of the night, even until ten
o'clock--one farmer witness had fallen asleep while deposing that he "had
knowed this man Hender some eighteen year"--and, as excitements come
indeed when they do come, and it seldom rains but it pours, the identical