foot in the
chest or in the face, and spoil the face for many a day, or for ever. It
was a gift of the backwoods and the lumber-camps, practised in hours of
stark monotony when the devils which haunt places of isolation devoid of
family life, where men herd together like dogs in a kennel, break loose.
There the man that dips his fingers "friendly-like" in the dish of his
neighbour one minute wants the eye of that neighbour the next not
so much in innate or momentary hatred, as in innate savagery and the
primeval sense of combat, the war which was in the blood of the first
man.

The unarmed appearance of these men did not deceive the pioneer folk
of Lebanon. To them the time had come when the reactionary forces
of Manitou must receive a check. Even those who thought the funeral
fanatical and provocative were ready to defend it.

The person who liked the whole business least was Rockwell. He was
subject to the same weariness of the flesh and fatigue of the spirit as
all men; yet it was expected of him that at any hour he should be at
the disposal of suffering humanity--of criminal or idiotic
humanity--patient, devoted, calm, nervestrung, complete. He was the one
person in the community who was the universal necessity, and yet for
whom the community had no mercy in its troubles or out of them. There
were three doctors in Lebanon, but none was an institution, none had
prestige save Rockwell, and he often wished that he had less prestige,
since he cared nothing for popularity.

He had made his preparations for possible "accidents" in no happy mood.
Fresh from the bedside of Ingolby, having had no sleep, and with many
sick people on his list, he inwardly damned the foolishness of
both towns. He even sharply rebuked the Mayor, who urged surgical
preparations upon him, for not sending sooner to the Government for a
force which could preserve order or prevent the procession.

It was while he was doing so that Jowett appeared with Gabriel Druse to
interview the Mayor.

"It's like this," said Jowett. "In another hour the funeral will start.
There's a lot of Manitou huskies in Lebanon now, and their feet is
loaded, if their guns ain't. They're comin' by driblets, and by-and-bye,
when they've all distributed themselves, there'll be a marching column
of them from Manitou. It's all arranged to make trouble and break the
law. It's the first real organized set-to we've had between the towns,
and it'll be nasty. If the preelate doe