I can tell you he took mighty little by that. It
was a week after, or maybe more, when he got an answer back. It was
Sabina Gallagher told me what was in it, having got it out of her cousin,
that's servant to Simpkins and seen the letter, so I know what I'm
telling you is the truth. The County Inspector said that if there was
boycotting in the place, or cattle driving, or any kind of lawlessness,
he'd be quick enough to have extra police drafted in and a baton charge
up and down upon the streets of the town; but that he wasn't going to
upset the policy of the Government, and maybe have questions asked about
him in Parliament, for the sake of a few shillings' worth of apples.
You'd think that would have been enough for Simpkins, but it wasn't. He
wrote another letter, up to Dublin Castle, to the Inspector-General of
Police, no less, and the end of it, was that the sergeant was moved out
of this."

"Poor fellow," said Meldon. "Did he mind much?"

"He did not then, for they sent him to a better station. It was only
last week they moved him, there being a lot of enquiries to be gone
through that occupied them the whole of the winter and the spring. The
doctor and myself is thinking of getting up a subscription to present him
with an illuminated address on account of the way he conducted himself to
the satisfaction of the inhabitants of this town while he was in it, and
as a protest against the underhand way that Simpkins went about trying to
injure him and take the bread out of the mouth of his children."

"I'll see that the Major subscribes to that," said Meldon.

"Tell Mr. Meldon," said Doyle, "what it was you were saying ought to be
on the address."

"It isn't worth speaking about," said the doctor modestly.

"You'd better tell me," said Meldon. "If I'm to be responsible for
revenging the wrongs of the community on Simpkins, I ought to be well up
in every detail of what's going on."

"It was nothing but just an idea that came across my mind," said the
doctor.

"It may be only that," said Meldon, "but it may be more. The proper
person to judge of its importance is me. You must have frequently
observed, doctor, that the man to whom an idea occurs is not by any means
the best judge of its value. Sometimes he thinks too much of it. Take
Galileo, for instance. He hit upon the fact that the earth goes round
the sun, and it struck him as immensely important. He gassed on about it
until everybody got so t