"You mustn't think of such a thing. Your life would be taken."
"It is cowardly to remain here."
"It is foolhardy to face, single handed, two or three hundred brutes like those who are yelling."
"But the widow's property?"
"The building belongs to the company, and you can easily pay her for what may be destroyed."
During this brief conversation the front windows had been shattered, and the mob appeared to be on the point of carrying the place by storm when a voice cried:
"I ain't here to fight agin women who are in the same box with ourselves. What's to prevent our smashin' the windows of his own house?"
"That's the way to talk," another replied. "Come on; we'll attend to his case later."
As if by magic the mob vanished; but the hoots and yells told of the direction in which they had gone.
"Something must be done at once, or there is no knowing where this thing will end. Fred, you and Sam get some boards up at these windows, and I'll learn how many of the men can be trusted to stand by us. Keep out of sight a while longer Brace."