Circle.”  Joe had been hissed on the street many times since the inimical clerk had whistled at him.  Probably demonstrations of that sort would have continued had he remained in Canaan; but for almost a month he had been absent and his office closed, its threshold gray with dust.  There were people who believed that he had run away again, this time never to return; among those who held to this opinion being Mrs. Louden and her sister, Joe’s step-aunt.  Upon only one point was everybody agreed:  that twelve men could not be found in the county who could be so far persuaded and befuddled by Louden that they would dare to allow Happy Fear to escape.  The women of Canaan, incensed by the terrible circumstance of the case, as the Tocsin colored it—­a man shot down in the act of begging his enemy’s forgiveness—­clamored as loudly as the men:  there was only the difference that the latter vociferated for the hanging of Happy; their good ladies used the word “punishment.”

And yet, while the place rang with condemnation of the little man in the jail and his attorney, there were voices, here and there, uplifted on the other side.  People existed, it astonishingly appeared, who liked Happy Fear.  These were for the greater part obscure and even darkling in their lives, yet quite demonstrably human beings, able to smile, suffer, leap, run, and to entertain fancies; even to have, according to their degree, a certain rudimentary sense of right and wrong, in spite of which they strongly favored the prisoner’s acquittal.  Precisely on that account, it was argued, an acquittal would outrage Canaan and lay it open to untold danger:  such people needed a lesson.

The Tocsin interviewed the town’s great ones, printing their opinions of the heinousness of the crime and the character of the defendant’s lawyer. . . .  “The Hon. P. J. Parrott, who so ably represented this county in the Legislature some fourteen years ago, could scarcely restrain himself when approached by a reporter as to his sentiments anent the repulsive deed. `I should like to know how long Canaan is going to put up with this sort of business,’ were his words. `I am a law-abiding citizen, and I have served faithfully, and with my full endeavor and ability, to enact the laws and statutes of my State, but there is a point in my patience, I would state, which lawbreakers and their lawyers may not safely pass.  Of what use are our most solemn enactments, I may even ask of what use is the Legislature itself, chosen by the will of the people, if they are to ruthlessly be set aside by criminals and their shifty protectors?  The blame should be put upon the lawyers who by tricks enable such rascals to escape the rigors of the carefully enacted laws, the fruits of the Solon’s labor, more than upon the criminals themselves.  In this case, if there is any miscarriage of justice, I will say here and now that in my opinion the people of this county will be sorely tempted; and while I do not believe in lynch-law, yet if that should be the result it is my unalterable conviction that the vigilantes may well turn their attention to the lawyers—­or lawyer—­who bring about such miscarriage.  I am sick of it.’ "