ttended Tom Grogan.
He was on his way to Quarantine in his buggy. He said he left her
insensible after dressin' the wound. He thought she might not live till
mornin'."

"May I ask your name, sir?" asked the president in a courteous tone.

"Peter Lathers. I am yardmaster at the U. S. Lighthouse Depot."

The title, and the calm way in which Lathers spoke, convinced the
president and the room. Everybody realized that Tom's life hung by a
thread. The Scotchman still had a lingering doubt. He also wished to
clear up the blind-staggers theory.

"Did he say how she was hurt?" asked the Scotchman.

"Yes. He said he was a-drivin' by when they picked her up, and he was
dead sure that somebody had hid in the stable and knocked her on the
head with a club."

McGaw steadied himself with his hand and grasped the seat of his chair.
The sweat was rolling from his face. He seemed afraid to look up, lest
some other eye might catch his own and read his thoughts. If he had only
seen Lathers come in!

Lathers's announcement, coupled with the Scotchman's well-known
knowledge of equine diseases discrediting the blind-staggers theory,
produced a profound sensation. Heads were put together, and low whispers
were heard. Dempsey, Quigg, and Crimmins did not move a muscle.

The Scotchman again broke the silence.

"There seems to be no question, gentlemen, that the poor woman is badly
hurt; but she is still alive, and while she breathes we have no right
to take this work from her. It's not decent to serve a woman so; and
I think, too, it's illegal. I again move that the whole matter be laid
upon the table."

This motion was not put, nobody seconding it.

Then Justice Rowan rose. The speech of the justice was seasoned with a
brogue as delicate in flavor as the garlic in a Spanish salad.

"Mr. Prisident and Gintlemen of the Honorable Boord of Village
Trustees," said the justice, throwing back his coat. The elaborate
opening compelled attention at once. Such courtesies were too seldom
heard in their deliberations, thought the members, as they lay back in
their chairs to listen.

"No wan can be moore pained than meself that so estimable a woman
as Mrs. Grogan--a woman who fills so honorably her every station in
life--should at this moment be stricken down either by the hand of an
assassin or the hoof of a horse. Such acts in a law-abidin' community
like Rockville bring with them the deepest detistation and the
profoundest sympathy. No