d the troops at the disposal of
the Mayor. The Mayor ordered the Colonel to report to the Inspector of
Police. It was something unheard of in military tradition, but this was
no time to expostulate or object. The gentleman and soldier touched his
hat to the ex-ward politician. "Mr. Morrissey, I report with my regiment
for your instructions." And the long column behind him, battalion by
battalion, came to the halt.

Up the side street among some piles of lumber arose above the tumult, or
rather pierced its low, deep-throated roar, the shrill cries of a child
in mad excitement and distress. "Oh, let me go!" it wailed. "I must see
the Colonel! I want my brother! They're killing my father! Oh, don't
stop me! Fred! Fred!" it screamed, and in the grasp of a burly policeman
at the outskirts of a crowd of women and children a little hatless boy
could be seen madly struggling.

[Illustration: IN ANOTHER MOMENT HE HAD RAISED THE BOY IN HIS ARMS.]

"Ah, go home to your mother wid yer fairy stories," was the cajoling
answer, as the officer strove to thrust the youngster back among the
by-standers; but all in an instant a lithe young fellow in the uniform
of a corporal had sprung from his saddle and rushed to the scene. In
another moment he had raised the boy in his arms, and with his burden
clinging sobbing at his neck, Fred Wallace came bounding back down the
street.

"Hear him, Colonel, oh, hear him!" he cried. "He has come straight from
the shops. Jim, my brother, sent him to beg for help. They're mobbing
father."

"Sure they fired the shops good fifteen minutes ago. They're all in a
blaze," said an officer of police, in a tone of remonstrance. "There's
no use going there."

"Who sent the kid?" asked the Inspector, doubtfully. "How do you know
this isn't all a fake?"

"It's my brother," cried Fred, nearly mad with impatience and dread.
"Oh, for pity's sake, let us go, Colonel! Jim sent you himself, didn't
he, Billy?"

"Yes, yes," sobbed the little fellow, "and they were screaming and
bursting in the door."

"Who is he, anyhow?" went on the official, still bent on investigation,
when the Colonel sharply interposed.

"This is no time for talk. I believe the story. You can see--hear it's
true. I demand the right to drive back that mob, or the whole country
shall ring with the story of your refusal."

"My goodness, Colonel! I'm not to blame. I've got my orders just as you
have. I'm told to use force only as a last ext