Billy also brought two messages to Solon:  one from Potts that he had been mistaken about the attitude of Little Arcady toward himself—­that he was seeing this more clearly every minute.  The other was from Hoffmuller.  Solon Denney was to know that some people might be just as good as other people who thought themselves a lot better, and would he please not take some shingles off a man’s roof?

Solon, ever the incorrigible optimist, said, “Of course I might have waited till he was on the train to give him the money; but don’t worry, he’ll be ready enough to go when the ’bus starts.”

I felt unable to share his confidence.  That presentiment had for the moment corrupted my natural hopefulness.

It was a few moments after ten when Potts next appeared to our group of anxious watchers.  This time he had more friends.  They swarmed respectfully but enthusiastically after him out of Hoffmuller’s place, a dozen at least of our ne’er-do-wells.  One of these, “Big Joe” Kestril, a genial lout of a section-hand, ostentatiously carried the bag and had an arm locked tenderly through one of the Colonel’s.  These two led the procession.  It halted at the corner, where the Colonel began to read his Argus notice to Bela Bedford, our druggist, who had been on the point of entering his store.  But the newspaper had suffered.  It was damp from being laid on bars, and parts of it were in tatters.  The reader paused, midway of the first paragraph, to piece a tear across the column, and Bedford escaped by dashing into his store.  The Colonel, suddenly discovering that he could recite the thing from memory, did so with considerable dramatic effect, seeming not to notice the defection of Bedford.  The crowd cheered madly when he had finished, and followed him across the street to the bar of the City Hotel.

We could now observe better.  The bar of the City Hotel is next the office.  A door is open between them with a wooden screen standing before it.  Inside the carouse raged, while we, who had thought to set Potts at large, listened and wondered.  The taller among us could overlook the screen.  We beheld Potts, one elbow resting on the bar, his other hand with the cane in it waving forward his unreluctant train, while he loudly inquired if there were drink to be had suitable for a gentleman who was prepared to spend his money like a lord.

“None of that cooking whiskey, mind—­nothing but the best bottled goods, if you please!” was the next suggestion.

Again the crowd cheered.  New faces were constantly appearing.  The news had gone out with an incredible rapidity.  Honest men, inflamed by the report, were leaving their works and speeding to the front from as far north as the fair-grounds and as far south as the depot.