All agreed that hanging was too good for the culprit, and some were in favor of lynching. One consideration alone deterred them from extreme measures, even while a rope was being hunted for among the skunk willows, sage and wild lupin by the road: namely, the unpopularity of such punitive proceedings with the Mounted Policeman newly appointed to the district.
"Times is sadly changed, boys," the leader reminded the delegation. "The gentlemanly way with us has allus bin ter choke off a traitor's last prayers with a hempen Amen. But this blamed M. P. is as apt ter pinch the gentlemen as acts impulsive in a little lynchin' matter as quick as he'd pinch a criminal. Thar's only two of 'em," he explained to the travelers, "the Sergeant and his man—but the way the feller covers distances—his horse has seven-leagued boots for sure! Now, as president of Perdu's Peace Committee and Law and Order League, I'd claim it my proud privilege ter fit the noose ter this young rascal's neck—but as husband to a good woman and father to her kids I don't want ter run up contrairy-wise agin Scarlett of the Mounted!"
"Very well," decided Evelyn. "I myself am in favor of government. I belong to several ladies' associations for upholding clean streets and economy in the Mayor's office and things like that. From what you say, this—I didn't catch the Mounted Policeman's name, but he obviously must be an officer; and though with us, in New York, policemen, even mounted ones, have no standing in Society, yet, in his way, he must be a gentleman. Then let this miserable fellow be bound and taken before him for sentence. I myself will press the charge against him."
"Good business," applauded the delegation, heartily.
But as they were about to bind the prisoner with a rope taken from the skeleton of a wretched horse that some inferior brute of a human being had put to purposes of transportation under conditions for which nature had never intended it, the Irishman put them lightly aside.
"One moment, please. Now that ye've wisely decided to postpone suspending the judged, also, as a famous American in a crisis once remarked, suspend judgment. All the accusations brought against me are dead true, which is why ye are alive to make them. I assisted in the despoiling of ye, on business principles, sacrificing small sums to one ten times their combined amounts. For under my own right foot I carry a sum that will not only replace Sarah's bonnet, greenbacks and all, but also reimburse the hospital with a little contribution of my own to boot."
As he spoke, he drew a roll of ready money from its hiding place and handed some bills over to the astonished maid and the no less astonished minister. "The rest, a draft, I am commissioned to deposit in the bank on account of one Durant, now absent on a prospecting trip, for the maintenance, till he returns, of his daughter——"
A loud chorus of surprise, admiration, gratitude interrupted the young man who was now hero of the hour.
The League enrolled him an honorary member on the spot. To his terror, three depressed women with bundles wanted to kiss him for his mother, while Maclane, on behalf of all the disabled people in the district, nearly wrung his hand off. As breaking away he started to make his escape, Evelyn detained him. "My preserver," she cried, in impassioned tones, "let me reward you!"
And when Scarlett, laughing, shook his head, refusing a moiety of his own ready money that, at Evelyn's direction, Sarah was proffering him, "Then at least tell me your name—for in the excitement I am ashamed to say I have clean forgotten it."