a house like that, Tasper!"

Britt took down the shield. He displayed a countenance of bland
satisfaction. "I don't think I'll be allowed to do it," he retorted,
answering jest with jest. "You know what women are when they see
a good-looking house needing a mistress." He rolled the paper up
carefully. "And now, talking of something sensible, I hope you're going
to turn out in good numbers when that contractor begins to hire. And
pass the word!"

Nobody showed much enthusiasm. One man with a querulous mouth suggested:
"It will seem like helping waste money, tearing down a stand of
buildings that ain't in any ways due to be scrapped; I ain't sure but
what it will seem like a worse waste of money, building a palace in a
town like this. Don't you expect to be taxed like Sancho?"

"Until we get some kind of legislation or court action to make our town
acts legal, the taxation question isn't worrying me much," said Britt,
grimly. "I'll take my chances along with the rest of you on getting an
act allowing us to compound with creditors."

"Probably can be arranged," said a man with the malice against the
usurer that prevailed in the oppressed town. "We're sending a good man
to the next legislature."

But Britt, in that new mood of his, was refusing to be baited. He began
to look about. "Where is that person who calls himself a Prophet?"

The others joined with Britt in making a survey of the landscape. Nobody
had been paying any attention to Elias, whose voice had been stilled
since the one-sided affair with Britt.

"There he is," announced a man.

The Prophet was patrolling. He was marching to and fro in front of
Britt's house. Then he walked in through a gap in Britt's fence and went
to the house and peered in at one of the windows. He had lowered and
folded his big umbrella and carried it under his arm.

"I call on all of you to note what he did then," called Britt. "He has
been doing that lately."

The Prophet returned to the road. Then he seemed to be attacked by
another idea. He went back through the gap in the fence and peered in at
another window.

"I repeat, he has been doing that. I was getting ready to take proper
measures to handle him. Something better than talking back to a lunatic!
But I didn't reckon I'd have such good luck as this! Twelve men right
here for my witnesses! Look hard at him, men!"

They did look, though they did not comprehend what Britt's excited
insistence signified. He pulled ou