he meeting talking
over the arrangements for the evening.

"I fear so," said Mr Maltby; "so we must take proper precautions. I
hear that the friends of poor Joseph Wright intend to muster in full
force and spoil the meeting if they can. However, I have spoken to the
police sergeant, and he will be there with one or two of his men to
prevent any serious disturbance. You must see that they don't turn off
the gas, and get us into trouble that way."

"All right, sir," replied Bradly, "we'll take care about that; but I
ain't much afraid. There's a deal of bluster among those chaps, but it
don't take much to empty it out of 'em. Somehow or other I think we're
going to have a good meeting after all."

Nevertheless, it was not without some considerable feeling of anxiety
that the vicar entered the committee room of the Town Hall about a
quarter of an hour before the time of commencement. He was accompanied
by a brother clergyman from a distant county, who had brought a plain
working-man with him from his parish. These were to be the chief
speakers of the evening. Thomas Bradly was to bring James Barnes with
him, and both were to take their places among the audience, but near the
platform, so as not to attract more observation than necessary, at the
first.

The hall, which was a spacious and well-lighted building, began to fill
as soon as the doors were opened. There was manifestly an unusual
interest taken, not necessarily nor probably in the cause itself, but,
at any rate, in the present meeting. The friends of Joseph Wright and
their companions had made it publicly known, and a matter of open
boasting, that they intended to be there; and this announcement was the
inducement to a number of idle men and boys to attend the meeting in the
hopes of having some diversion. But Thomas Bradly and his friends were
quite equal to the occasion; they were fully alive to the intention of
their adversaries, and acted accordingly. As the opponents of
temperance entered the hall, members of the Temperance Society contrived
to slip in with them, and so to distribute themselves over the seats
that no large number of the other side could be gathered in a compact
body together.

By the time the minute-hand of the clock over the chairman's seat had
reached twenty-five minutes past seven--the meeting being advertised to
begin at half-past seven--the hall was densely packed from one end to
the other, the only unoccupied places bein