Shortly after the return of Harry and Arthur Blaisdell, a dozen boys came running in, the former saying: 

“Here we are, boys.  The doctor is coming as fast as he can.  You have not had any fight since I went away?  Young Smith got there ahead of me and some of the boys had already started before I got there, so I did not go all the way, but came back with them to see the fun.”

Dr. Wise, all in black and wearing big spectacles came up soon and asked Percival and Jack who were the men who had made the trouble at the branch.

Jack pointed out the big man and the doctor said to him: 

“What is the matter, my man?  Why do you wish to oppose this work?  We do not intend any harm to you or to any one.  The railroad company has given me full authority to make a survey and to build a branch road.  What is your objection?”

“It’ll hurt our farms,” growled Big Bill.

“Who told you that?”

“Phil Watts, that feller yonder.”

“How did you learn this, Watts?” asked the doctor.

“Jim Jenkins told me.”

“Well, well, this seems to be all hearsay information,” muttered the doctor.  “Where is Jenkins?  We must learn where he got his information.  Who is Jenkins?”

“That’s me,” said one of the men who had hung back.

“And who told you that we were going to hurt your farms by building the branch road?  I do not know of any farms in this section, and if there were any it would help rather than injure them by giving you a chance to get your produce to market sooner.  Who told you that it would injure them, Jenkins?  I want to get at the bottom of this affair.”

“Well, I wasn’t the only one what was told it,” growled Jenkins, glaring around at his companions, “though it’s been put up to me as if I started it.  Bill Calthorpe heard it as well as me, an’ so did Phil Watts.  We was all told it together.”

The big man did not seem to like this admission and moved uneasily, first on one foot and then on the other.

“Yes, yes, but who was the person who told you?” asked the doctor a little impatiently.  “We want to get at the first person who gave this information.  Was it one of yourselves or a stranger?  Do you actually know the person who told you this?”

“No, I don’t,” growled Jenkins, “but I can tell you this, and that is that he was a big young feller and had a uniform under his coat which come open while he was talkin’, so’s I could see it plain; an’ if it wasn’t the same identical uniform them boys wear, I’ll eat my hat!”

“Do you see him now?” asked the doctor.

Jenkins looked around and Bill Calthorpe and the other squatters did the same, the first speaker’s admission not being denied by any of them.

“No, he ain’t here now,” said Jenkins.

“Was he here at all to-day?” suddenly asked Billy Manners in a tone that brought attention upon him in an instant.