"I'll bet a thousand dollars against a jelly-fish's hind leg that
he begged the job so as to do you," whispered Sproul. "I ain't been
a brother-in-law of his goin' on two years not to know his shenanigan.
It's a plot."

"Who picked out that old cross between a split-saw and a bull-thistle
to umpire this muster?" shouted the foreman of the Ancients, to the
amazement of the brisk little man.

"Why, he's the leadin' man in this section, and a Smyrna man at that,"
explained the marshal. "I don't see how your company has got any kick
comin'. He's one of your own townsmen."

"And that's why we know him better than you do," protested Hiram,
taking further cue from the glowering gaze of Cap'n Sproul. "You put
him out there with the tape, and you'll see--"

"'Peace and politeness, and everybody happy,'" quoted Uncle Trufant,
maliciously. The serenity had departed from Foreman Look's face.

"You don't pretend to tell me, do ye, that the Smyrna Ancients are
afraid to have one of their own citizens as a referee?" demanded the
brisk little man suspiciously. "If that's so, then there must be
something decayed about your organization."

"I don't think they're down here to squirt accordin' to the rules
made and pervided," went on the ancient Vienna satirist. "They've
brought Bostin bags and a couple of wimmen, and are goin' to have
a quiltin'-bee. P'raps they think that Kunnel Gid Ward don't know
a fish-bone stitch from an over-and-over. P'raps they think Kunnel
Ward ain't ladylike enough for 'em."

Not only had the serenity departed from the face of Foreman Look,
the furious anger of his notoriously short temper had taken its
place.

"By the jumped-up jedux," he shouted, "you pass me any more of that
talk, you old hook-nosed cockatoo, and I'll slap your chops!"

The unterrified veteran of the Viennese brandished his cane to
embrace the throng of his red-shirted townsmen, who had been crowding
close to hear. At last his flint had struck the spark that flashed
with something of the good old times about it.

"And what do you suppose the town of Vienny would be doin' whilst
you was insultin' the man who was the chief of old Niag'ry Company
for twenty years?" he screamed.

"There's one elephant that I know about that would be an orphin in
about fifteen seconds," growled one of the loyal members of the
Vienna company, the lust of old days of rivalry beginning to stir
in his blood.

"Would, hey?" shouted an Ancient, with th