rd blinked without appearing to understand.

But the foreman of the Smyrna Ancients immediately made it evident
that he had evolved a peculiar method of dealing with the case in
hand. He drove Imogene straight at the goggling referee.

"Up that tree!" roared Hiram. "She'll kill you if you don't."

Indeed, the elephant was brandishing her trunk in a ferocious manner.
A ladder was leaning against a near-by elm, and Colonel Ward, almost
under the trudging feet of the huge beast, tossed dignity to the winds.
He ran up the ladder, and Imogene, responding to a cuff on her head,
promptly dragged it away from the tree.

"Only three minutes left to get Hecla into position," Hiram shouted.
"Referee says so. Lively with her!"

Around and around in a circle he kept Imogene shambling, driving the
crowd back from the tree. The unhappy Colonel was marooned there in
solitary state.

At first the Vienna company showed a hesitating inclination to
interfere with the placing of Hecla, suspecting something untoward
in the astonishing elevation of the referee. But even Uncle Trufant
was slow to assume the responsibility of interfering with a company's
right of contest.

The Ancients located their engine, coupled the hose, and ran it out
with alacrity.

"Colonel Ward," shouted Hiram, "you've tried to do it, but you can't.
If it's got to be dog eat dog, and no gents need apply at a firemen's
muster, then here's where we have our part of the lunch. Did you
measure in twenty extry feet up to your spit mark? Speak up! A quick
answer turneth away the hose!"

By this time the crew was gently working the brakes of old Hecla.
The hose quivered, and the four men at the nozzle felt it twitching
as the water pressed at the closed valve. They were grinning, for
now they realized the nature of their foreman's mode of persuasion.

Vienna realized it, too, for with a howl of protest her men came
swarming into the square.

"Souse the hide off'm the red-bellied sons of Gehenna!" Hiram yelled,
and the hosemen, obedient to the word, swept the hissing stream on
the enemy.

Men who will face bullets will run from hornets.

Men who will charge cannon can be routed by water.

The men at the brakes of old Hecla pumped till the tub jigged on her
trucks like a fantastic dancer. To right, to left, in whooshing
circles, or dwelling for an instant on some particularly
obstreperous Vienna man, the great stream played. Some were knocked
flat, some fell a