"To get the mob after him!" exclaimed Parks in great indignation. "To get the police after him, you mean."
"The police!" I exclaimed in my turn. "Oh, he was the man under arrest, then?"
"It was an outrage of arbitrary power," said Parks, flushing angrily, "and the people have shown what they think of it. He has been taken out of the hands of those petty tyrants, and it will be a long time before he falls into them again."
"What was the charge?" I asked, at a loss to imagine what crime could have been committed by this inoffensive wreck of a man.
"He was arrested," said Parks indignantly, "for exercising the right of free speech."
"Free speech is rather an elastic term," I said. "What was he talking about?"
"The only thing he knows anything about," said Parks. "That's his case."
"Well, it is a subject that might call out rather strong language, but I don't see just how that could bring him afoul of the police."
"Sir," cried Parks, "it could happen only through the exercise of arbitrary power. The point of the thing is that the Supreme Court this afternoon handed down its sixth decision in his suit against Bolton. The judgment against Bolton is reversed, and the case sent back for a new trial."
"What a shame!" I said, remembering the justice of Merwin's claim, the ruin of his life, and his long fight against the wealth and malignity of Peter Bolton.