Here swayed the myriad palm-leaf fans; here paraded blushing youth and rosy maiden, more relentlessly arm-in-arm than ever; here crept the octogenarian, Mr. Bodeffer, shaking on cane and the shoulder of posterity; here waddled Mr. Snoddy, who had hurried through the animal tent for fear of meeting the elephant; here marched sturdy yeomen and stout wives; here came William Todd and his Anna Belle, the good William hushed with the embarrassments of love, but looking out warily with the white of his eye for Mr. Martin, and determined not to sit within a hundred yards of him; here rolled in the orbit of habit the bacchanal, Mr. Wilkerson, who politely answered in kind all the uncouth roarings and guttural ejaculations of jungle and fen that came from the animal tent; in brief, here came with lightest hearts the population of Carlow and part of Amo.
Helen had found a true word: it was a big family. Jim Bardlock, broadly smiling and rejuvenated, shorn of depression, paused in front of the “reserve” seats, with Mrs. Bardlock on his arm, and called loudly to a gentleman on a tier about the level of Jim's head: “How are ye? I reckon we were a little too smart fer 'em, this morning, huh?” Five or six hundred people—every one within hearing—fumed to look at Jim; but the gentleman addressed was engaged in conversation with a lady and did not notice.
“Hi! Hi, there! Say! Mr. Harkless!” bellowed Jim, informally. The people turned to look at Harkless. His attention was arrested and his cheek grew red.
“What is it?” he asked, a little confused and a good deal annoyed.
“I don't hear what ye say,” shouted Jim, putting his hand to his ear.
“What is it?” repeated the young man. “I'll kill that fellow to-night,” he added to Lige Willetts. “Some one ought to have done it long ago.”
“What?”
“I say, WHAT IS IT?”
“I only wanted to say me and you certainly did fool these here Hoosiers this morning, huh? Hustled them two fellers through the court-house, and nobody never thought to slip round to the other door and head us off. Ha, ha! We were jest a leetle too many fer 'em, huh?”
From an upper tier of seats the rusty length of Mr. Martin erected itself joint by joint, like an extension ladder, and he peered down over the gaping faces at the Town Marshal. “Excuse me,” he said sadly to those behind him, but his dry voice penetrated everywhere, “I got up to hear Jim say 'We' again.”