Next he produced a boiled shirt, a collar, and a black tie.
It took him some time to assemble these infrequently used accessories, and he was dismayed to find no collar-button.
Nervously he searched the drawers, tossing their contents upside down in fruitless quest for this indispensable article.
A collar-button was the corner-stone of his toilet—the object on which everything else depended. Should it fail to be forthcoming, the game was up. He could not administer the law without it.
Perhaps, viewing the matter from every angle, its disappearance was a fortunate, rather than an unfortunate, omen.
Now that he had had time for sober reflection, the enterprise on which he had embarked appeared a foolhardy—almost mad undertaking. To grapple with an experienced criminal was suicidal. It was bad enough to do so if forced into the dilemma by chance. But to seek out such an issue deliberately! He wondered what he had been thinking of. Excitement had swept him off his feet and put to rout both his caution and his common sense.
He wished with all his heart he had never mentioned the matter to Eleazer. But for that, he could pull out of it and no one would be the wiser.
Suppose the criminal did escape? Were not lawbreakers doing so every day?
One more at large could make little difference in the general moral tone of society. Anyway, no criminal—no matter what a rascal he might be, was worth the sacrifice of a man's life—particularly his life, argued Elisha.
But, alas, there was Eleazer to whom he had precipitately confided the entire story!