lectors; for these elements
of the crowd had now amalgamated (so to speak) in a loving embrace.

The ceremony of greeting, as witnessed from a distance by the villagers,
extended to a thousand little personal liberties, which white men would no
more tolerate from each other than would the more dignified of the beasts
of the forest. And when its honey had been extracted by the parties
respectively, they were seen to place their upper extremities near
together in consultation. Some observation of amazing pithiness ran the
gauntlet of woolly crowns; and immediately afterwards a burly politician
withdrew from the caucus, followed by all eyes, and at a point not far
distant drew a diagram on the platform with his cane. Completing the
demonstration, and using, the same weapon, he smote upon the echoing
timbers with loud emphasis, and immediately the olfactory charm was
renewed around the quadrilateral wonder, which, having been viewed by the
crowd with the air of savants, became at once the subject of animated
discussion; and then, as suddenly, of perfect agreement and harmonious
handshaking.

This seemed a favorable moment for dispersion; and, indeed, the latter
movement must have had partial reference thereto, for instantly the crowd
developed as many moral agents as it had possessed caucusing elements,
who, adopting their several courses, looked neither to the right nor left,
but pushed for the interior with all commendable speed.

This cloud, "no bigger than a man's hand," but nevertheless boding a
political shower of no mean consequence to dwellers thereabouts had been
viewed, as we have anticipated, by a number of persons, who, in their
anxiety to conceal impressions, did not linger in the vicinity after being
informed, by a glance, of its ominous character. The horseman whom we have
seen in another chapter speeding through the neighborhood on courier duty,
took his cue from a friendly sun-glint shot from the glazed surface of one
of the carpet-bags; and, indeed, all the details of preparation
culminating in the forest meeting of the weird brotherhood, which we have
described, and those events connected therewith, which will demand our
attention as we proceed, were suspended on one of those mere accidents of
discovery which frequently have so much to do with the fate of communities
in times of political disquiet.

In a retired forest grove, distant from any settlement, was a dismantled
church building, which had been