The girl’s heart fluttered strangely at the words of her former maid, but she tried to disguise her emotion.  When again left alone she strained her ears for every sound from the city, and was untiring in her watch.  From noon till evening she kept a dainty lunch ready for Merwyn, but he did not come.

After the young man’s return from his second fight he was given some rest.  In the afternoon, he, with others, was sent on duty to the west side, the force being carried thither in stages which Acton had impressed into the service.  One driver refused to stir, saying, insolently, that he had “not been hired to carry policemen.”

“Lock that man in cell No. 4,” was Acton’s answer, while, in the same breath, he ordered a policeman to drive.

That was the superintendent’s style of arguing and despatching business.

Merwyn again saw plenty of service, for the spirit of pandemonium was present in the west side.  Towards evening, however, the rioters ceased their aimless and capricious violence, and adopted in their madness the dangerous method of Parisian mobs.  They began throwing up a series of barricades in Eighth Avenue.  Vehicles of all kinds within reach, telegraph poles, boxes,—­anything that would obstruct,—­were wired together.  Barricades were also erected on cross-streets, to prevent flank movements.  Captain Walling, of the police, who was on duty in the precinct, appreciated the importance of abolishing this feature from street fighting as speedily as possible, and telegraphed to headquarters for a co-operating military force.  He also sent to General Sanford, at the arsenal, for troops.  They were promised, but never sent.  General Brown, fortunately, was a man of a very different stamp from Sanford, and he promptly sent a body of regulars.

Captain Slott took command of the police detailed to co-operate with the soldiers, and, with their officers, waited impatiently and vainly for the company promised by Sanford.  Meanwhile the mob was strengthening its defences with breathless energy, and the sun was sinking in the west.  As the difficult and dangerous work to be done required daylight it was at last resolved to wait no longer.

As the assailants drew near the barricade, they received a volley, accompanied by stones and other missiles.  The police fell back a little to the left, and the troops, advancing, returned the fire.  But the rioters did not yield, and for a time the crash of musketry resounded through the avenue, giving the impression of a regular pitched battle.  The accurate aim of the soldiers, however, at last decided the contest, and the rioters fled to the second barricade, followed by the troops, while the police tore away the captured obstruction.

Obtaining a musket and cartridges from a wounded soldier, Merwyn, by explaining that he was a good marksman, obtained the privilege of fighting on the left flank of the military.

The mob could not endure the steady, well-directed fire of the regulars, and one barricade after another was carried, until the rioters were left uncovered when they fled, shrieking, yelling, cursing in their impotent rage,—­the police with their clubs and the soldiers with their rifles following and punishing them until the streets were clear.