“Jumpin’ Judas!  Asked us!  Do you mean to say you’re thinkin’ of doin’ what he asked?  Are you loony, too?  Are you—­”

“Shh, Shadrach!  He asked us, as a last favor, to take charge of his girl.  I feel as you do that we can’t do it, ’tain’t sensible nor possible for us to do it, but—­”

“There ain’t any buts.”

“But the very least we can do is go and see her and talk to her.”

“What for?  So we’ll feel meaner and more sneaky when we have to say no?  I shan’t go to see her.”

“All right.  Then I shall.  You can wait here for me till I come back.”

“Hold on, Zoeth!  Hold on!  Don’t—­”

But Mr. Hamilton was at the door and did not turn back.  Judge Baxter, who was following him, spoke.

“Sit right here, Captain,” he said.  “Make yourself as comfortable as you can.  We shan’t be long.”

For an instant Shadrach remained where he was.  Then he, too, sprang to his feet.  He overtook the lawyer just as the latter reached the side door.

“Hello, Captain,” exclaimed Baxter, “changed your mind?”

“Changed nothin’.  Zoeth’s makin’ a fool of himself and I know it, but he ain’t goin’ to be a fool all by himself.  I’ve seen him try it afore and ’tain’t safe.”

“What do you mean?”

The Captain grunted scornfully.

“I mean there’s safety in numbers, whether it’s the number of fools or anything else,” he said.  “One idiot’s a risky proposition, but two or three in a bunch can watch each other.  Come on, Judge, and be the third.”

CHAPTER III

The white house on Phinney’s Hill looked desolate and mournful when the buggy containing Judge Baxter and his two companions drove into the yard.  The wagon belonging to Mr. Hallett, the undertaker, was at the front door, and Hallett and his assistant were loading in the folding chairs.  Mr. Hallett was whistling a popular melody, but, somehow or other, the music only emphasized the lonesomeness.  There is little cheer in an undertaker’s whistle.

Captain Gould, acting under the Judge’s orders, piloted his horse up the driveway and into the back yard.  The animal was made fast to the back fence and the three men alighted from the buggy and walked up to the side door of the house.

“Say, Judge,” whispered the Captain, as they halted by the step, “you don’t cal’late I can find out who loaded up that music-box chair on me, do you?  If I could meet that feller for two or three minutes I might feel more reconciled at bein’ fool enough to come over here.”

Mrs. Hobbs answered the knock at the door—­she invited them in.  When told that they had come to see Mary-’Gusta she sniffed.

“She’s in her room,” she said, rather sharply.  “She hadn’t ought to be let out, but of course if you want to see her, Judge Baxter, I presume likely she’ll have to be.  I’ll go fetch her.”