id statutes! Well,
thaynk the Lawd, yo're plumb right, we ain't! Thaynk Gawd we _air_ a
'new-bawn civilization'--as says you when you didn' suspicion I wah
a-listenin'"--he fell into a mincing mimicry--"'a new-bawn civilization
with all the chahm an' all the pity o' new-bawn things,' says you to yo'
wife--ef she air yo' wife."

The shock of the insult ran through the group and out to a dozen hearers
beyond; to the captain and a knot of young people courting his
conversation; to Watson, high above; to the stallion-eyed man and the
eagle-eyed, who both had come up with the twins and were adhering to the
senator, the general, and the Kentuckian from California.

Gilmore paled with anger. Ramsey's merriment, which had begun at the
beginning, ceased for a breath and then, to the loathing of the twins,
came on worse as she found herself very erect in one of Mrs. Gilmore's
gentle arms. The eyes of both the wife and the girl were on the actor
and their every nerve was unstrung. Beseechingly he waved them away.

"Come," the wife said, though without moving, "come on."

"Oh, not a step!" laughed Ramsey. "They--they need us! We must help!"
She had turned her frank gaze to Hugh in mingled wonder, exultancy, and
distress. It seemed a dream that he should be the dull boy of yesterday.
He was speaking to the exhorter and appeared not to have her in sight or
mind, although, in fact, her untimely levity ran him through like a
dart. His absurdly deep voice was rich with a note not of mere
forbearance but of veritable comradery, yet his eyes, as they held the
offender's, were as big and dangerous as she had ever seen her mighty
father's and she laughed on for what laughter might be worth, the only
help she could furnish.

"Not that you mean the slightest offence," he prompted.

The exhorter stiffened up. The nearer few packed close. Slender Basile
was just at Hugh's left between him and the twins. The exhorter opened
his mouth to reply but the words hung in his throat. To help them out he
gave his head a disputative tilt, but Basile's hysterical treble broke
in:

"Say no! You slang-whanging lick-skillet, say no!"

The man gasped. The boy whirled to his convalescent brother. "Give me
that cane!" He snatched it, whipped out its keen stiletto, and with all
his light force smote the empty staff, left-handed, across the
exhorter's cheek and ear, yelping: "Say no! Say it!"

"No!" said the victim, but the word was equivocal and the boy