“'Better not. Things happening now. City Hall. Pretty likely. Military here most any time. Despatches to Beteta. Despatches from Beteta. Gunboat after your boat. Don't know. Point's this: Whose a burglar? I am. Pack up for him. Why not?'
“Sadler said, i don't know Kirby, but I'll take the liberty of busting his window, if that's all. Looks to me as if one had been busted here already.'
“He put his hand through the broken window pane and unfastened the window, and we entered, leaving Dorcas with his horses.
“Our selections from your apparel and other properties, Kit, I trust you'll find to have been judicious.
“Dorcas drove us to the north side of the bay and routed out the men who rowed us here. They are, I believe, employés of The Transport Company. Dorcas refused to come with us.
“'Better not,' he said. 'Point's this: tell the Mayor I haven't seen him. No collusion. Mayor's friend. You tell Kirby. Write me letter. I'll wait here. Send it back. Power of attorney. Take charge. Responsible. I say so. Tell him. Goodbye, gentlemen. Glad to've known you. Good-bye.'
“Having arrived then,” concluded Dr. Ulswater, “it remains to inquire if we've done well. If not, the boatmen are waiting, but if we have——” Here Dr. Ulswater leaned forward, and put his hand on my knee.
“My dear boy, I believe I speak for Mrs. Ulswater too. We've been the round of the world, missing you.”
As I thought it over, it seemed to me plain that Dorcas was right. He and Jamison were very decent sort of men. If Dorcas took the responsibility, the property would be safer with him than with me, supposing I was in jail. Could I serve The Union Electric better, under the circumstances, than by running away, as a sort of scapegoat, carrying off The Union Electric's ill-odour with the Mayor, along with the thirty thousand? The Company ought to be satisfied. I didn't like running away. I longed for another crack at the Mayor. I looked at Mrs. Ulswater, at the doctor, at Susannah.
I supposed Dorcas was right about the ultimatum too, if the doctor had reported his jerky hints correctly. He had lived in the country almost as long as I was old, and was clever and wise. I had felt proud of that ultimatum. It was new and bold and spectacular. But Dorcas had put his finger on the flaw in it, the injury to the Mayor's prestige, by which nothing was gained and much was lost. He might have pardoned being held up, if it could have been done behind the door, though I didn't see how it could have been done. He might even have pardoned the ultimatum, but there were Chepa's proclamation, whose blasting rhetoric was Susannah's—Susannah's genius and Chepa's idiom—and Mrs. Ulswater's insurrection in general, and my taking advantage of it—why, Dorcas was right there, at least. The Mayor had a whip-hand now, for the Government would back him up now with a case for international argument. The riot was bad business. It looked as if Mrs. Ulswater were not so infallible as the doctor thought. I wasn't altogether a success either. The Union Electric might or might not think me all right, but Dorcas was right, and The Transport Company had won a point over us by having elderly wisdom to manage its affairs in Portate, instead of a young one whose nerve was longer than his head. Anyhow, the milk was spilt.