“I am sure I don’t care where you go,” replied the officer. “But you are not wanted in Mount Airy and you can’t stay.”
“But I tell you I will stay, too,” shouted Matt, who was so nearly beside himself that Tom and his companions looked for nothing but to see him assault the officer. Probably he would have laid violent hands upon him had it not been for the presence of the stalwart guides, who stood close behind him. “I came here ’cause I heared that there was plenty that an honest, hard-workin’ man could do.”
“And so there is,” answered the constable, “but you are neither honest nor hard-working.”
“They wouldn’t have me an’ my boys fur guides, ’cause we didn’t have no fine clothes to wear,” continued Matt. “An’ nuther would they buy the fish we ketched, ’cause—look a yer. You needn’t try to read that there paper to me, ’cause I won’t listen to it, I tell you.”
But the constable, who had grown tired of talking, paid no attention to him. He read the notice, raising his voice as often as the squatter raised his; then Matt’s boys, and finally his wife came to his assistance, and this started the guides, who flourished their fists in the air and shouted until they were red in the face. Among them all they raised a fearful hubbub, and, of course, the officer’s voice was entirely inaudible; but he read calmly on, and when he had finished the document he walked away, followed by the guides, and leaving the squatter and his family in a towering rage. Ralph and Loren were afraid of them now that the constable and his broad-shouldered backers were gone, but Tom looked serenely on, and could hardly resist the impulse to laugh outright when he saw Matt and his family stamping about, shaking their clenched hands in the air, and acting altogether as though they had taken leave of their senses.
“Let’s get away from here,” whispered Loren, when Matt made a sudden and furious rush toward the shanty, and began trying to kick the side of it in with his heavy boots, just to show how mad he was, and to give his wife and boys some idea of the damage he would do if he only possessed the power.
“What’s your hurry?” asked Tom, indifferently. “Can’t you see how we can turn this to our advantage?”
“I can see that those people are in a terrible rage,” replied Loren, who was really alarmed, “and I am afraid they will turn on us next.”
“There’s no danger of that,” answered Tom, confidently. “When men rant and rave in that way they are not to be feared for any thing they may do openly. They are the ones who work in secret.”
At this moment Matt Coyle became aware that he and his family were not alone—that there were three interested spectators close at hand; and as if to show Tom that he was mistaken in the opinions to which he had just given expression, Matt rushed toward him as if he meant to annihilate him, followed by all the members of his family, who shook their fists and shouted as if they were very angry indeed. Ralph and Loren shrank back, but Tom, who was nobody’s coward, stood his ground, looked squarely into Matt’s eyes, and coolly put his hands into his pockets.