the ladies, and Beamish hesitated.

"I was too taken up with Mrs. Nelson to notice the rest, and the place
was rather dark. Anyway, about half of them were foolish girls with
notions; I don't want to drag them in."

"You blame somebody for setting them on?"

"I do," said Beamish, without a trace of rancor. "There's Mrs.
Nelson--everybody knows she's a crank--and Hardie, the Methodist
minister. They've been trying to make trouble for the hotels for quite
a while."

The constable made a note of this and presently called on Hardie, who
had just returned to town after visiting a sick farmer. The former
listened to what the minister had to say, but was not much impressed.
Beamish had cleverly made him his partizan.

After supper George and Grant called on Hardie and found him looking
distressed.

"I'm much afraid that the result of three or four months' earnest work
has been destroyed this afternoon," he said. "Our allies have stirred
up popular prejudice against us. We'll meet with opposition whichever
way we turn."

"There's something in that," Grant agreed. "Mrs. Nelson's a lady who
would wreck any cause. Still, she has closed the hotels."

"For one night. As a result of this afternoon's work, they will
probably be kept open altogether. You can imagine how the authorities
will receive any representations we can make, after our being
implicated in this disturbance."

"Have you thought of disowning the ladies? You could do so--you had no
hand in the thing."

The young clergyman flushed hotly.

"I'd have stopped this rashness, if I'd heard of it; but, after all,
I'm the real instigator, since I started the campaign. I'm willing to
face my share of the blame."

"You mean you'll let Beamish make you responsible?"

"Of course," said Hardie. "I can't deny I'm leader. The move was a
mistake, considered prudentially; but it was morally justifiable. I'll
defend it as strongly as I'm able."

Grant nodded, and Flora and Mrs. Nelson came in.

"Are you satisfied with what you've done?" Grant said to the girl.
"You might have given me a hint of it."

Flora smiled.

"I'm afraid Beamish was too clever for us. From an outsider's point of
view, he behaved exceptionally well, and in doing so he put us in the
wrong. I didn't know what had been planned when I left home, but, as
one of the league, I couldn't draw back when I heard of it."

"You think he was too clever?" Mrs. Nelson broke in. "How absur