“Why,” answered Westley, looking very earnest, “just go up to him in a quiet, refined manner—­no blustering, understand—­and say in a low tone, kind of off-hand but serious, ‘Now, look a’ here, Potts, old boy, let’s talk this thing over like a couple of gentlemen had ought to.’  ’Well, all right,’ says Potts, ’that’s fair—­I couldn’t refuse that as from one gentleman to another gentleman.’  Well, then, say to him, ’Now, Potts, you know as well as any man in this town that you’re an all-round no-good—­you’re a human Not—­and a darn scalawag into the bargain.  So what’s the use?  Will you go, or won’t you?’ Then if he’d begin to hem and haw and try to put it off with one thing or another, why, just hint in a roundabout way—­perfectly genteel, you understand—­that there’d be doings with a kittle of tar and feathers that same night at eight-thirty sharp, rain or shine, with a free ride right afterward to the town line and mebbe a bit beyond, without no cushions.  Up about the Narrows would be a good place to say farewell,” he concluded thoughtfully.

We had listened patiently enough, but this was too summary.  Westley Keyts is our butcher, a good, honest, energetic, downright business man with a square forehead and a blunt jaw and red hair that bristles with challenges.  But he seems compelled to say too nearly what he means to render him useful in negotiations requiring any considerable finesse.

“We were speaking, Westley, of the gentle functions of diplomacy,” remarked Solon, cuttingly.  “Of course, we could waylay Potts and kill him with one of your cleavers and have his noble head stuffed and mounted to hang up over Barney Skeyhan’s bar, but it wouldn’t be subtle—­it would not be what the newspapers call ’a triumph of diplomacy’!  And then, again, reports of it might be carried to other towns, and talk would be caused.”

“Now, say,” retorted Westley, somewhat abashed, “I was thinking I answered all that by winding up the way like I did, asking him,—­not mad-like, you understand,—­’Now will you go or won’t you?’ just like that.  All I can say is, if that ain’t diplomacy, then I don’t know what in Time diplomacy is!”

I think we conceded this, in silence, be it understood, for Westley is respected.  But we looked to Solon for a more tenuous subtlety.  Nor did he fail us.  Two days later Potts upon the public street actually announced his early departure from Little Arcady.

To know how pleasing an excitement this created one should know more about Potts.  It will have been inferred that he was objectionable.  For the fact, he was objectionable in every way:  as a human being, a man, a citizen, a member of the Slocum County bar, and a veteran of our late civil conflict.  He was shiftless, untidy, a borrower, a pompous braggart, a trouble-maker, forever driving some poor devil into senseless litigation.  Moreover, he was blithely unscrupulous in his dealings with the Court, his clients, his brother-attorneys, and his fellow-men at large.  When I add that he was given to spells of hard drinking, during which he became obnoxious beyond the wildest possible dreams of that quality, it will be seen that we of Little Arcady were not without reason for wishing him away.