policeman that they were being needlessly assaulted by the
Negro.

[Illustration: "The rock battle was now on in earnest, the white boys
feeling sure that their superior numbers would soon put
the lone warrior to flight."
(54-55)]

The Negro who did not see the policeman, ascribed the capitulation of
his opponents to his own vigorous campaign, and now picked up his books,
a look of exultation on his face. When he turned he found himself in the
arms of the policeman. One of the boys, it developed, had been slightly
bruised by one of the Negro's rocks. The Negro was put under arrest and
locked up in the station house for the night.

The next morning as Tiara was perusing the paper, she noticed that a
Negro boy, Henry Crump, had been arrested on a charge of assault and
battery.

"Henry Crump--Henry Crump--Crump--Crump! That name is familiar to me,"
said Tiara, laying aside the paper to see if she could recall why the
name sounded so familiarly to her. "I have it," said she, springing to
her feet. "Why, I stayed with the Crumps the first night that I was in
Almaville. And it is their little Henry in trouble. I'll help the little
fellow out," said she.

Tiara observed that little Henry's case was set for ten o'clock that
morning and it was then nine. She dispatched a note to Ensal, who
immediately responded in person to accompany her to the place of the
trial.

"This," said Ensal, "is but a symptom of a growing disease. In the days
before the war the young master and the Negro boys played together and
there was undoubtedly a strong tie of personal friendship between the
slaveholding class and the Negroes on their plantation. But all is
changed now. Rarely do you find white and Negro children playing
together, and the feeling of estrangement grows apace with the years."

"What is pending?" earnestly asked Tiara, turning her large, anxious
eyes on Ensal.

"Heaven alone knows," replied Ensal. "Just think! In order to have peace
here between the children of the two races, the school authorities
provide that there shall be a difference of an half hour between the
respective hours of going to and coming from school," continued Ensal.

They were soon at the police station. Climbing the flight of stairs they
entered a room crowded with Negroes from the lower stratum. The great
majority of the women, it could be seen, had made some effort at
respectability