"Perhaps," replied Smoothbore as he glanced at the Dome. "Perhaps!" and they parted.
"The old man is a bit locoed on this rebellion theory," mused Herbert as he went along. "It's strange in a man who has seen so much service, and with him it is not 'nerves.'" Just then Herbert happened to glance up at the Dome. "By Jove! what a position for a couple of maxims. One hundred men could stand off ten thousand. I wonder! There are thousands of men starving, with many too proud to beg, and little to spare even for them. What would a successful revolution mean? For one thing, it would establish a multitude of openings in the new Civil Service—with chances of graft. It would mean a new police force, or militia, perhaps both, the members of which would, at least, be fed. It is not a case so much of righting wrong, as of getting for these fellows a piece of the pumpkin. Taking that view of it, it looks serious. What if the old man were right!" Such were the thoughts that flashed through Herbert's mind.
Almost within a minute after Smoothbore had left him he was wavering in his opinions; now he was striding in pursuit of him.
"Well—what do you think we had better do about it," asked the Commandant, after he had heard the changed opinions of his Inspector.
"Arrest the leaders!"
The conversation was interrupted by a knock at the office-door, which was followed by the entrance of Constable Hope, quite in a fluster.
"I have located Berwick's friends, sir," he reported, "in fact he was with them when I spotted them. They were all in Baxter's Free Library, and they are up to something. Berwick sits reading the Bible, and every now and then one of his aides-de-camp comes up and whispers in his ear, and then goes away to begin opening conversation with some pilgrim. I sat down, thinking one of them might come to me with his talk, but no results, sir."
"Well, now you have them located, take two good men in plain clothes and point the gang out to them; in fact, you might take four, so that henceforth they can be easily traced. Detail one man to Berwick and two to the others."
"Good man, that," remarked Herbert, when Hope had left their presence.
"Yes, it would be a pity to have him in the Army."