story of why you were washed won't wash itself. It's too thin."

"I have the honah, suh," said Bennett formally, "to info'm yo' that yo' do
not know what yo' are talkin' about."

His silken tones apparently enraged the man.

"You silk-stockinged----of a----!" said he.

Without haste Calhoun Bennett rapped the man across the face with his light
rattan cane. Venting a howl of rage, the Eureka partisan leaped forward.
Calhoun Bennett, quick as a flash, drew a small derringer and fired; and
the man went down in a heap. Superbly nonchalant, Bennett, without a glance
at his victim, turned away, the ring of spectators parting to let him
through. He saw Keith, and at once joined him, drawing the young man's arm
through his own. Keith, looking back, saw the man already sitting up,
feeling his shoulder and cursing vigorously.

Bennett was fairly radiating rage, which, however, he managed to suppress
beneath a well-bred exterior calm.

"These hounds, suh," he told Keith, "profess not to believe us, suh! They
profess, suh, that our explanation of how we were washed is a fabrication.
You will oblige me, suh, by profferin' yo' personal testimony in the case."

He faced Keith resolutely toward the Eureka engine house. Keith spared a
thought to wonder what he was being let in for by this handsome young fire-
eater, but he went along unprotesting.

Around the Eureka engine house was a big crowd of men. These fell silent as