and astutely got under the counter. When the combatants
scrambled outside, he locked the door and crawled out the back window.
Next morning the brick-yard malcontents marched triumphantly again and
Hale called for volunteers to arrest them. To his disgust only Logan,
Macfarlan, the Hon. Sam Budd, and two or three others seemed willing to
go, but when the few who would go started, Hale, leading them, looked
back and the whole town seemed to be strung out after him. Below the
hill, he saw the mountaineers drawn up in two bodies for battle and, as
he led his followers towards them, the Hoosier owner of the plant rode
out at a gallop, waving his hands and apparently beside himself with
anxiety and terror.

"Don't," he shouted; "somebody'll get killed. Wait--they'll give up." So
Hale halted and the Hoosier rode back. After a short parley he came back
to Hale to say that the strikers would give up, but when Logan started
again, they broke and ran, and only three or four were captured. The
Hoosier was delirious over his troubles and straightway closed his
plant.

"See," said Hale in disgust. "We've got to do something now."

"We have," said the lawyers, and that night on Hale's porch, the three,
with the Hon. Sam Budd, pondered the problem. They could not build a
town without law and order--they could not have law and order without
taking part themselves, and even then they plainly would have their
hands full. And so, that night, on the tiny porch of the little cottage
that was Hale's sleeping-room and office, with the creaking of the one
wheel of their one industry--the old grist-mill--making patient music
through the rhododendron-darkness that hid the steep bank of the
stream, the three pioneers forged their plan. There had been
gentlemen-regulators a plenty, vigilance committees of gentlemen, and
the Ku-Klux clan had been originally composed of gentlemen, as they all
knew, but they meant to hew to the strict line of town-ordinance and
common law and do the rough everyday work of the common policeman.
So volunteer policemen they would be and, in order to extend their
authority as much as possible, as county policemen they would be
enrolled. Each man would purchase his own Winchester, pistol, billy,
badge and a whistle--to call for help--and they would begin drilling and
target-shooting at once. The Hon. Sam shook his head dubiously:

"The natives won't understand."

"We can't help that," said Hale.

"I know--I'm with