, much less a
district,' I replied.

'Ah, you are too young,' said Dragomiroff. 'For another thing, you are
not a mamma. Please look at the mammas.'

Ten or fifteen women who remained had separated themselves from the
silent men, and were drawing in towards the prisoners. It reminded one
of the stealthy encircling, before the rush in at the quarry, of wolves
round musk-oxen in the North. The prisoners saw, and drew together more
closely. The Mayor covered his face with his hands for an instant. De
Forest, bareheaded, stepped forward between the prisoners, and the
slowly, stiffly moving line.

'That's all very interesting,' he said to the dry-lipped orator. 'But
the point seems that you've been making crowds and invading privacy.'

A woman stepped forward, and would have spoken, but there was a quick
assenting murmur from the men, who realised that De Forest was trying to
pull the situation down to ground-line.

'Yes! Yes!' they cried. 'We cut out because they made crowds and invaded
privacy! Stick to that! Keep on that switch! Lift the Serviles out of
this! The Board's in charge! Hsh!'

'Yes, the Board's in charge,' said De Forest. 'I'll take formal evidence
of crowd-making if you like, but the Members of the Board can testify to
it. Will that do?'

The women had closed in another pace, with hands that clenched and
unclenched at their sides.

'Good! Good enough!' the men cried. 'We're content. Only take them away
quickly.'

'Come along up!' said De Forest to the captives, 'Breakfast is quite
ready.'

It appeared, however, that they did not wish to go. They intended to
remain in Chicago and make crowds. They pointed out that De Forest's
proposal was gross invasion of privacy.

'My dear fellow,' said Pirolo to the most voluble of the leaders, 'you
hurry, or your crowd that can't be wrong will kill you!'

'But that would be murder,' answered the believer in crowds; and there
was a roar of laughter from all sides that seemed to show the crisis
had broken.

A woman stepped forward from the line of women, laughing, I protest, as
merrily as any of the company. One hand, of course, shaded her eyes, the
other was at her throat.

'Oh, they needn't be afraid of being killed!' she called.

'Not in the least,' said De Forest. 'But don't you think that, now the
Board's in charge, you might go home while we get these people away?'

'I shall be home long before that. It--it has been rather a trying day.'

She sto