text:
Page:Celtic Stories by Edward Thomas.djvu/44

 shouted to them, 'Follow them, follow!' but they took no notice, and when he came nearer they asked in astonishment, 'Is it thy shadow thou art chasing, Cohoolin, for lack of an enemy?'

'I chase the host which ye have passed through.'

'We have seen no one for an hour, Cohoolin. Thou hast been listening too much to the poets and singers, so that thou canst not tell the difference between a few words and a man with a sword.'

He returned to the house. Once again he tried to look out, because the enemy seemed to be whispering at every inch of the walls and roof in the darkness; but the venerable druids surrounded him, and told him that it was magic only, and that there was not enough of the enemy to shake the bee out of the blossom.

Early on the next morning, Conachoor called together the druids and singers and poets, and the friends and lovers of Cohoolin, and asked them how they were going to keep him from the fight that day, and, still weary from the past day, all of them answered that they knew no way. Wherefore Conachoor advised them to take the hero into the Deaf Glen, where he could escape the sounds of enchantment. This was a glen so cut off from the remainder of the earth, that if all the men of Ireland were gathered close to it and yelled their war cries no one within could hear anything. They had already tried to persuade him into the glen, but in vain. Cathbad the Druid stood close to Cohoolin, and invited him to come to a feast in the Deaf Glen. Niav the golden-haired knelt beside him and kissed him and asked him to come; and she was one whom he never used to refuse. Again Cathbad spoke, and Cohoolin said:

'Shall I be feasting while all Ireland is preparing against Ulster, and I alone of the chiefs am free from


text:
Page:Bury J B The Cambridge Medieval History Vol 2 1913.djvu/126

98 a proper contract in due form were not found. One was to treat the matter on the analogy of some contract the incidents of which it appeared to resemble. Thus money paid on the supposition of a debt, which however proved not to have existed, was recoverable, as if it had been a loan. Money or anything transferred to another in view of some event which did not take place was recoverable, as if paid on a conditional contract, the condition of which had not been fulfilled.

Another mode was for the complainant, instead of pleading a contract, to set forth the facts of the case and invite judgment on the defendant according to the judge's view of what the equity of the case required. Thus barter was not within the legal conception of purchase and sale, for that must always imply a price in money, but it had all other characteristics of a valid contract and was enforced accordingly on a statement of the facts. If a work had to be executed for payment but the amount of payment was left to be settled afterwards, this was not ordinary hire, which is for a definite remuneration, but might well be enforced on reasonable terms.

Before leaving contracts, which are the largest and most important branch of obligations, it is as well to point out that the transfer of an obligation, whether an active obligation, i.e. the right to demand, or a passive obligation, i.e. the duty to pay or perform, is attended with difficulties not found in the transfer of a physical object, whether land or chattels. An obligation being a relation of two parties with one another only, it seems contrary to its nature for A, who has a claim on B, to insist on payment from C instead; or for D to claim for himself B's payment due to A. With the consent of all parties, the substitution is possible and reasonable, but the arrangement for transfer must be such as to secure D in the payment by B, and to release B from the payment to A. Two methods were in use. At A's bidding D stipulates from B for the debt due to A: B is thereby freed from the debt due to A and becomes bound to D. This was called by the Romans a novation, i.e. a renewal of the old debt in another form. Similarly A would stipulate from C for the debt owed by B to A. This being expressly in lieu of the former debt frees B and binds C. These transfers being made by stipulation require the parties to meet. The other method was for A to appoint D to collect the debt from B and keep the proceeds, the suit being carried on in A's name, and the form of the judgment naming D as the person entitled to receive instead of A. Similarly in the other case C would make A his representative to get in B's debt. In practice no doubt matters would rarely come to an actual suit. The method by representation was till 1873 familiar enough in England, a debt being a chose in action and recoverable by transferee only by a suit in the name of the transferor.

Gradually from about the third century it became allowable for the agent in such cases to bring an analogous action in his own name.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


text:
Page:Celtic Stories by Edward Thomas.djvu/45

 the magic? If ye had not spoilt me, I would have killed those kings and scattered their armies before now.'

As he spoke he seemed to be listening to something. Then his wife Emer said to him:

'O my first love and all men's darling, favourite of the poets of Erin, come with me and with Niav and Cathbad to the feast.'

Cathbad reminded him that it was unlucky for him not to accept an invitation to a feast. He rose up, therefore, but with a sick heart, and went in with them to the Deaf Glen.

'The enemy,' he moaned, 'will say that I came hitherto escape from them.'

'But they will not believe it,' said Cathbad.

He had got ready a vast mansion within the glen. At one end sat Cohoolin, with the poets on his right and Niav and the other women on his left; at the opposite end the singers and harpers and dancers performed; and it was full of laughter and music and glad faces. Outside stood Cohoolin's two horses, the Grey of Macha and the black, tended by his charioteer, Laegh the son of Riangabar.

At daybreak the daughters of Calatin came looking for Cohoolin; but they could not find him anywhere in Emania. Then they rose up into the air and flew this way and that like buzzards, their wings moaning and making a wind that supported them. They flew for a long time until the two horses standing in the glen betrayed Cohoolin. As on the day before, the witches took thistle-down and puff-balls and dead leaves and made them into an army covering the hills and valleys round about. Where a moment before there had been nothing, now armed men were swarming. It was as when a man turns up a spadeful of earth and suddenly all is alive with


text:
Page:Bury J B The Cambridge Medieval History Vol 2 1913.djvu/125

Rh in general when the master was sued on account of his slave (de peculio) he had a right to deduct from the peculium the amount of any debt due to himself, he had no such right when he was cognisant of the slave's action and had not forbidden it; he could then only claim rateably with other creditors. A son or daughter under power was for these purposes in the same position as a slave.

It was rarely that the Romans allowed a third party who was a freeman and independent to be privy to a contract. The freeman acquired and became liable for himself, and the principals to the contract in case of such an agent had to obtain transfers from him of the rights acquired: they could not themselves sue or be sued on the agent's contract. But two cases were regarded by Roman Law as exceptional. When a person provided a ship and appointed a skipper in charge of it, he was held liable in full for the skipper's contracts in connexion with it, if the person contracting chose to sue him instead of the skipper. And the like liability was enforced, if a man had taken a shop and appointed a manager over it. In both cases the rule held, whether the person appointing or appointed was man or woman, slave or free, of age or under age. The restriction of the owner's liability to the amount of the slave's peculium disappeared, and the privity of contract was recognised against the appointer, although the skipper or manager who actually made the contract was a free person acting as mediary. But this recognition was one-sided: the principal did not acquire the right of suing on the skipper's or manager's contract, if the latter were free ; he must, usually at least, obtain a transfer of the right of suit from him, the transfer being enforced by suing the skipper or manager as an employee or mandatee.

At one time there was a marked difference between the consensual contract along with most of those arising re on the one hand, and on the other hand stipulation and cash-loan (mutuum). In actions to enforce the former the judge had a large discretion, and the standard by which he had to guide his decisions or findings was what was fairly to be expected from business men dealing with one another in good faith. In actions to enforce the latter the terms of the bargain were to be observed strictly: the contract was regulated by the words used: the loan was to be repaid punctually in full. Gradually these latter contracts came to be treated similarly to the former so far as their nature permitted, and by Justinian's time the prevalence of equity was assured: the intention of the parties was the universal rule for interpretation of all contracts, and reasonable allowance was made for accidental difficulties in their execution, when there was no evidence of fraud.

Two modes were adopted in classical times for dealing with the engagements or position of parties where the terms and characteristics of


text:
Page:Celtic Stories by Edward Thomas.djvu/46

 ants. This multitude shrieked and made all the sounds of battle, of men conquering and being conquered, of the angry and the wretched, of horns and trumpets, of women weeping over the horrible things they saw or dreaded, of children sobbing, of goblins and all inhuman things that haunt wild places and neighbourhoods of war and death. The glen was as full of this tumult as water is of wetness, and the women in the hall raised their voices to keep it from Cohoolin. Nevertheless he heard it and deemed it the triumphant enemy and his dying countrymen; surely now the time of battle had come. But Cathbad told him these noises were mockeries made by Calatin's children. The singers sang, the poets chanted, the dancers danced. The witches grew weary of their useless enchantments, and one of them named Bibe thought of another deceit. Changing herself into the form of one of Niav's attendants she called to her mistress and, when Niav came out with her women, lured them away and bewitched them and lost them in the glen. Next she took the shape of Niav herself, for she knew that it was Niav who had made Cohoolin promise not to attack the men of Erin without her permission.

'Cohoolin,' she said, 'Ulster is being laid waste and the people will blame me because thou gavest me a promise not to go out against the enemy. I release thee. Go quickly and scatter them.'

'It is hard to know what a woman means,' said Cohoolin, ' but a little time past and what thou desiredst above all other things was that I should not fight.'

As he rose up the edge of his mantle was under one foot and he was jerked back again into his seat. Red with shame he sprang up a second time, and the force of the spring shot his gold mantle pin up to the roof, and


text:
Page:Bury J B The Cambridge Medieval History Vol 2 1913.djvu/124

96 common chest, could manumit their slaves and take legacies and inheritances. They usually acted through a manager; their resolutions required a majority of the quorum, which was two-thirds of the whole number of councillors (decuriones). They are said corpus habere, "to be a body corporate."

Other associations for burials or for religious or charitable purposes, often combined with social festivities, were allowed to exist with statutes of their own making, if not contrary to the general law. But without express permission they could not have full corporate rights. Guilds or unions of the members of a trade, as bakers, are found with various privileges. Such authorised societies or clubs were often called collegia or sodalitates. They were modelled more or less on civic corporations: Marcus Aurelius first granted them permission to manumit there slaves.

The large companies for farming the taxes (publicani) or working gold or silver mines had the rights of a corporation, but probably not so far as to exclude individual liability for the debts, if the common chest did not suffice.

differs from the three other contracts, which are based on simple agreement. There are no reciprocal services and no remuneration or common profits. It is gratuitous agency: not the agency of a paid man of business; that would come under the head of hiring. Nor is it like the agency of a slave; that is the use of a chattel by its owner. It is the agency of a friend whose good faith, as well as his credit, is at stake in the matter. The mandatee is liable to the mandator for due performance of the commission he had undertaken, and the mandator is liable to him only for the reimbursement of his expenses in the conduct of the matter.

Similar agency but unauthorised, without any contract, was not uncommon at Rome, when a friend took it upon himself to manage some business for another in the latter's absence and thereby saved him from some loss or even gained him some advantage. The swift process of the law courts in early days seems to have produced and justified friendly interference by third parties, which required and received legal recognition. The person whose affairs had thus been handled had a claim upon the interferer for anything thereby gained, and for compensation for any loss occasioned by such perhaps really ill-advised action or for negligence in the conduct of the business, and was liable to reimburse him for expenses, and relieve him of other burdens he might have incurred on the absentee's behalf. Such actions were said to be negotiorum gestorum, "for business done."

But in Rome the usual agent was a slave; for anything acquired by him was thereby ipso facto acquired for his master, and for any debt incurred by him his master was liable up to the amount of his slave's peculium; and if the business in question was really for the master's account or done on his order the master was liable in full. And though


text:
Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 3.djvu/211

 hadRepeated word [sic] stopped to take some refreshment, he came up with two very well-dressed men. As evening was approaching, Fontaine was not sorry to obtain fellow travellers; he therefore addressed the two strangers, who were not slow in returning his salutation, and a conversation soon arose between them. "Good evening, gentlemen," said he to them.—"The same to you," replied they. "We shall soon have night overtake us," resumed the butcher. "We shall indeed, sir," answered one of the two pedestrians, "and at this season of the year we must not reckon upon much assistance from the twilight."

"I should care very little about it," added Fontaine, "but, unfortunately, I have still a considerable distance to walk to-night."

"And where may you be proceeding to, if it be not too impertinent a question?"

"Where am I going? Why, to Milly, to purchase sheep."

"In that case, if agreeable to you, we may as well join company; my friend and self are proceeding to Corbeil on business, so that chance has been most favourable to us."

"Agreed!" exclaimed the butcher, "things could not have fallen out better; nor shall I be slow in profiting by it; for, in my humble opinion, when one has money about one, travelling in good company is far more pleasant than being quite alone."

"You have money about you, then?"

"You are right there, my friend, and a pretty considerable sum too."

"Well, we likewise have large sums; but we were informed that we ran no risk, as this part of the country was considered perfectly safe."

"Indeed! I am glad to hear it; but, were it otherwise, I have something here (showing a huge stick) that would make a tolerable resistance; besides, I think, the most daring thieves would hardly have the


text:
Page:Bury J B The Cambridge Medieval History Vol 2 1913.djvu/123

Rh gave generally a claim for rescission whenever the price was less than half the real value. This ground of rescission was later called laesio enormis, and many attempts were made to extend its application.

The contract of is similar in many respects to that of purchase and sale. But the lessee, if evicted, has only his claim against the lessor on his covenant to guaranty quiet possession, and has no hold over the land, if sold by his lessor to another. In letting a farm the lessor was bound to put it in good repair and supply necessary stabling and plant: and, if landslip or earthquake or an army of locusts or other irresistible force does damage, the lessor has to remit proportionably the current rent. The like rules held of letting houses, except that plant was not provided. The lessee had a good claim/on the lessor for any necessary or useful additions or improvements, and usually could recover his expenditure or remove them. He was bound to maintain the leased property whether farm or house, and to treat it in a proper manner, cultivating the farm in the usual way. He could underlet within the limits of his term; and the law of the fifth century allowed either lessor or lessee to throw up the contract within the first year, without any penalty, unless such had been agreed on. The usual term of lease was five years, at least in Italy and Africa; in Egypt one or three years.

Contracts for building a house, carriage of goods, training of a slave, etc., come under this head, where the locator supplied the site or other material. The conductor, who performed the service, was liable for negligence.

is another contract founded on simple agreement, but also characterised, like the two last mentioned, by reciprocal services. It was in fact an agreement between two or more persons to carry on some business together for common account. The contributions of the members and their shares in the result were settled by agreement, and they were accountable to each other for gains and losses. Like other contracts it concerned only the partners: outsiders need know nothing of it; in any business with them only the acting partner or partners were responsible. A partner's heir did not become a partner, except by a new contract with common consent. A partnership came to an end by the death of a partner, or his retirement after due notice, or when the business or time agreed came to an end.

There was no free development of association into larger companies, without the express approval of the State. A company continues to exist irrespectively of the change or decease of the members, regulates its own membership and proceedings, has a common chest and a common representative, holds, acquires, and alienates its property as an individual. In Rome such corporate character and rights were only gradually granted and recognised, each particular privilege being conceded to this or that institution or class of institutions as occasion required.

Towns and other civil communities had common property and a


text:
Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 3.djvu/212

 courage to attack three such formidable antagonists as we should make."

"No, no; they would not dare to meddle with us."

Conversing thus, the trio reached the door of a small house, which the branch of juniper, decorating the entrance, designated as a cabaret. Fontaine proposed to his companions to take a bottle together. They entered; procured some Beaugency at eight sols the flask, and seated themselves to enjoy it. The cheapness of the wine—its harmless nature—their meeting with it at a time when weariness had begun to steal over at least one of the party—were so many reasons for lengthening their stay.—At last they rose to depart; and a general emulation arose as to who should defray the reckoning. Nearly an hour, during which more than one fresh bottle was discussed, passed in this amicable dispute; which, being at last yielded in favour of Fontaine, completed the elevation of his spirits, and raised him to the highest pitch of gaiety. Under similar circumstances, what man could have harboured suspicion?

Poor Fontaine, delighted at having met with such agreeable companions, thought he could not do better than take them as guides for the remaining part of his journey; and in full confidence of their integrity, abandoned himself to their guidance along the by-road they were then travelling. He walked on, therefore, with one of his newly found friends, whilst the second followed close behind. The night was very dark, scarcely allowing the travellers to distinguish one step before the other; but guilt, with its lynx-like eye, can penetrate the thickest gloom; and while Fontaine was unsuspectingly following the path recommended by his companion, the one who remained behind him struck him over the head a violent blow with his cudgel, which made him reel: surprised, but not intimidated, he was about to turn round to defend himself, when a second blow, more fatal than the first, brought him to


text:
Page:Celtic Stories by Edward Thomas.djvu/47

 falling down it entered his foot. 'The pin is a foe,' he said, 'but the cloak was a friend, warning me. I know what is to happen.' He stepped swiftly outside into the air. The women and the poets crowded round him, but no one could stop him now. He called to Laegh and bade him make ready the chariot. The witch disappeared. Now Niav herself spoke to him, saying: 'I would not have given thee leave to go, not for the world; it was one of Calatin's daughters who took my shape and deceived thee. O Cohoolin, stay with us, stay with me.' He could not believe her, and he repeated his orders to Laegh. The horses knew better; they refused to be caught. The Grey of Macha, who used always to come up at the shaking of the reins, now ran away, shedding tears of blood. Cohoolin himself ran after him, but not until Laegh had come round on the other side could he be caught.

Cohoolin would not stay for farewells. He leapt into his chariot and at once set out, though it seemed to him a sign of evil that his weapons fell down from their places when he mounted. Among the weapons were the three spears brought up from Hell by Calatin's children.

On the green of Emania he saw horses and armed men in thousands equipped for battle. He could hear the shouting of plunderers, and saw smoke darkening the sky, and flames making a witches' daylight. Presently he saw foemen upon the roof of the palace itself—they were murdering Emer—they tossed her out—everywhere there were flames, and he cried out bitterly because he had been kept back. Cathbad caught him up and told him that these men were made out of an old woman's apronful of dead leaves. 'But I also am enchanted,' muttered Cohoolin. 'Was I myself made out


text:
Page:Bury J B The Cambridge Medieval History Vol 2 1913.djvu/122

94 produced, then the sureties might be sued, and after that, recourse should be had to the debtor's property. If sureties paid, they had a claim on the debtor for reimbursment and for the transfer to them of any pledge he had given, but could not retain the pledge if debtor offered them the amount of debt and interest. A surety's obligation passed to his heirs.

If a woman gave a guaranty for another person, even for her husband or son or father, so as to make her liable for them, the obligation was invalid. But she was not protected, if the obligation was really for herself, or if she had deceived the creditor or received compensation for her guaranty, or had after two years' interval given a bond or pledge or surety for it. This rule, which dates from the Early Empire (senatus consultum Velleianum), was based on the theory that a woman might easily be persuaded to give a promise, when she would not make a present sacrifice. Accordingly she was not prohibited from making gifts. Justinian confirmed and amended the law in 530 by requiring for any valid guaranty by a woman a public document with three witnesses, and in 556 enacted that no woman be put in prison for debt.

The class of contracts which arise, i.e. by the agreement of the parties, without special formalities or transfer of a thing from one to the other, is constituted by Purchase and sale, Hire and lease, Partnership, Mandate.

(one thing under two names) is complete when the parties have agreed on the object and the price, or at least agreed to the mode of fixing the price. The agreement may be oral or in writing: if the latter, it must be written or subscribed by the parties; and till that is done, neither party is bound. Whether the contract is oral or written, the intended buyer, if he does not buy (in the absence of any special agreement on the point), forfeits any earnest money he may have given, and the vendor, if he refuses to complete, has to repay the earnest twofold. (So Justinian 528.) The vendor is bound by the completed contract to warrant to the purchaser quiet and lawful possession but is not bound to make him owner. He must, however, unless otherwise agreed, deliver the thing to the purchaser, where it is, and thereby transfer all his own right. From the date of completion of the contract, though delivery has not taken place, the risk and gain pass to the purchaser, but he is not owner until he has paid the price and got delivery, and then only if the vendor was owner, or possession for the due time has perfected the purchaser's title. The vendor is liable to the purchaser on his covenants (e.g. in case of buyer's eviction, for double the value), and also for any serious defects which he has not declared and of which the purchaser was reasonably ignorant.

In case of sale of an immovable Diocletian admitted rescission when the price was much under the value (285). It was probably Justinian who


text:
Page:Celtic Stories by Edward Thomas.djvu/48

 of more than a dead leaf? O Cathbad, go and preach to the unenchanted.' He hastened to Emer's bower. There she sat, as fresh and quiet as a newly opened flower, but shedding tears for him. She asked him to enter, but he would not.

'Look at the enemy!' he said, 'and there is only me to oppose them.'

'They are phantoms, Cohoolin, such as even I could oppose.'

'Girl, I will never stop until I have assaulted the enemy.'

His mother, Dectora, tried to keep him back, or at least to wait until his cousin Conall the Victorious could join him.

'No,' he said, 'if I am to die then I cannot hide away from death. If I am not to die nothing can hurt me. In any case, what is there to fear? I have been through more than I believe I shall ever see again, and I never feared it nor do I now think that there was cause to fear. If my time has come it is not friendly to keep me back to die under a roof. And fame outlives life.'

All wailed for him as he departed with only Cathbad in his company.

At the first ford they saw a slender maiden with yellow hair and body as white as milk bending over the water. She was weeping as she washed and wrung out the blood from garments that were all crimson.

'Do you see that, Cohoolin?' said Cathbad. 'That is Bibe's daughter. It is thy garments she is washing out, and by that thou mayst know what will be the end of fighting for thee to-day.'

'Be not troubled, Cathbad. What if this daughter of a witch be washing blood out of those garments? Maybe they belong to those who are to perish by this sword


text:
Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 3.djvu/213

 the ground: immediately the other robber, armed with a short dagger, threw himself upon him, and ceased not to deal out murderous wounds, till he believed his victim had ceased to exist.

Fontaine had yielded after a long and desperate struggle, and lay as apparently lifeless as his assassins would have had him. They quickly stripped him of the contents of his money-bag, with which they made off, leaving him weltering in his blood. Happily, it was not long before a passenger, attracted by his groans, came to his succour, and discovered the wretched man, whom the freshness of the night air had recalled to his senses. After having rendered him what assistance was in his power, the stranger hastened to the nearest hamlet in search of further aid—information was immediately dispatched to the magistrates of Corbeil—the attorney-general arrived without delay at the place of crime, and commenced the most diligent inquiries respecting the slightest circumstances attending it. Eight and twenty wounds, more or less deep, bore ample testimony how much the murderers had feared that their victim should escape them. Spite of the cruelty of their intention, Fontaine was yet able to utter a few words, although his extreme exhaustion from loss of blood rendered him unable to give all the particulars which were necessary for the ends of justice. He was removed to the hospital, and at the end of two days, so favourable a change took place, that he was pronounced out of danger.

The most minute exactitude had been observed in removing the body. Nothing had been neglected which might lead to the discovery of the assassins. Accurate impressions were taken of the footmarks; buttons, fragments of paper dyed in blood were carefully collected: on one of these pieces, which appeared to have been hastily torn off to wipe the blade of a knife found at no great distance from it, was observed some written characters, but they were without any connecting sense, and, consequently, unable to afford any information


text:
Page:An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828) vol 2.djvu/91

Rh in their bones; rest from their wars in Canaan, and the insults which their enemies there had at first offered them. They now dwelt, not only in habitations of their own, but those, quiet and peaceable ones; though there were Canaanites that remained, yet none that had either strength or spirit to attack them, or so much as to give them an alarm. This rest continued, till they by their own sin and folly put thorns into their own beds, and their own eyes.

3. God had promised to give them victory and success in their wars, and this promise likewise was fulfilled, there stood not a man before them, v. 44. They had the better in every battle, and which way soever they turned their forces, they prospered. It is true, there were Canaanites now remaining in many parts of the land, and such as afterward made head against them, and became very formidable. But, (1.) As to the present remains of the Canaanites, they were no contradiction to the promise, for God had said he would not drive them out all at once, but by little and little, Exod. 23. 30. They had now as much in their full possession as they had occasion for, and as they had hands to manage; so that the Canaanites only kept possession of some of the less cultivated parts of the country against the beasts of the field, till Israel, in process of time, should become numerous enough to replenish them, (2.) As to the after-prevalency of the Canaanites, that was purely the effect of Israel's cowardice and slothfulness, and the punishment of their sinful inclination to the idolatries and other abominations of the heathen, which the Lord would have cast out before them, but they harboured and indulged them.

So that the foundation of God stands sure: Israel's experience of God's fidelity is here upon record, and is an acquittance under their hands to the honour of God, the vindication of his promise which had been so often distrusted, and the encouragement of all believers to the end of the world. There failed not any good thing, no, nor aught of any good thing, (so full is it expressed,) which the Lord had spoken unto the house of Israel, but in due time all came to pass, v. 45. Such an acknowledgment as this, here subscribed by Joshua, in the name of all Israel, we afterward find made by Solomon, and all Israel did in effect say amen to it, 1 Kings 8. 56. The inviolable truth of God's promise, and the performance of it to the utmost, is what all the saints have been ready to bear their testimony to; and if in any thing it has seemed to come short, they have been as ready to own that they themselves must bear all the blame.

CHAP. XXII. Many particular things we have read concerning the two tribes and a half, though nothing separated them from the rest of the tribes except the river Jordan, and this chapter is wholly concerning them. I. Joshua's dismission of the militia of those tribes from the camp of Israel, in which they had served as auxiliaries during all the wars of Canaan, and their return thereupon to their own country, v. 1..9. II. The altar they built on the borders of Jordan, in token of their communion with the land of Israel, v. 10. III. The offence which the rest of the tribes took at this altar, and the message they sent thereupon, v. 11..20. IV. The apology which the two tribes and a half made for what they had done, v. 21..29. V. The satisfaction which their apology gave to the rest of the tribes, v. 30..34. And (which is strange) whereas in most differences that happen, there is a fault on both sides, on this there was fault on no side; none (for aught that appears) were to be blamed, but all to be praised.

HEN Joshua called the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, 2. And said unto them, Ye have kept all that Moses the servant of the commanded you, and have obeyed my voice in all that I commanded you: 3. Ye have not left your brethren these many days unto this day, but have kept the charge of the commandment of the your God. 4. And now the your God hath given rest unto your brethren, as he promised them: therefore now return ye, and get you unto your tents, and unto the land of your possession, which Moses the servant of the  gave you on the other side Jordan. 5. But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the charged you, to love the  your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul. 6. So Joshua blessed them, and sent them away: and they went unto their tents. 7. Now, to the one half of the tribe of Manasseh Moses had given possession in Bashan; but unto the other half thereof gave Joshua among their brethren on this side Jordan westward. And when Joshua sent them away also unto their tents, then he blessed them; 8. And he spake unto them, saying, Return with much riches unto your tents, and with very much cattle, with silver, and with gold, and with brass, and with iron, and with very much raiment: divide the spoil of your enemies with your brethren. 9. And the children of Reuben, and the children of Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, returned, and departed from the children of Israel out of Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan, to go unto the country of Gilead, to the land of their possession, whereof they were possessed, according to the word of the by the hand of Moses.

The war being ended, and ended gloriously, Joshua, as a prudent general, disbands his army, who never designed to make war their trade, and sends them home to enjoy what they had conquered, and to beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; and, particularly, the forces of these separate tribes, who had received their inheritance on the other side Jordan from Moses, upon this condition, that their men of war should assist the other tribes in the conquest of Canaan, which they promised to do, Numb. 32. 32. and renewed the promise of Joshua at the opening of the campaign, Josh. 1. 16. And now that they had performed their bargain, Joshua publicly and solemnly in Shiloh gives them their discharge. Whether this was done, as it was placed, not till after the land was divided, as some think, or whether after the war was ended, and before the division was made, as others think, (because there was no need of their assistance in dividing the land, but only in conquering it, nor were there any of their tribes employed as commissioners in that affair, but only of the other ten, Numb. 34. 18, &c) this is certain, it was not done till after Shiloh was made


text:
Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 3.djvu/214

 likely to throw a light on the affair. Nevertheless, the attorney-general attached a great importance to the explanation of these fragments; and, upon more narrowly exploring the spot where Fontaine had been found lying, a second morsel was picked up, which presented every appearance of being part of a torn address: by dint of close examination, the following words were deciphered:—

2em

This piece of paper seemed to have once formed part of a printed address; but of whose address? It was at present wholly impossible to make out. However that might be, as no circumstance is too slight to deserve notice in the absence of more substantial proofs, notes were carefully made of everything that might be hereafter available information. The magistrates assembled on this occasion received the thanks their extreme zeal and ability so fully merited. As soon as they had fulfilled this part of their mission, they returned with all haste to Paris, in order to concert further plans with the judicial and administrative authority. At their desire, I had immediate conference with them, and, furnished with a procès verbal prepared by them, I opened the campaign against the assassins. Their victim had sufficiently described them; but how could I place implicit reliance on information proceeding from such a source? Few men in imminent danger can preserve sufficient presence of mind to take accurate views of all that is passing; and upon the present occasion I was the more inclined to doubt the testimony of Fontaine, from the extreme nicety with which he detailed the most trifling particulars; he related, that during the long struggle he had with the assailants, one of them had fallen on his knees, uttering a cry of pain; and that he heard him moaning and complaining to his accomplice of suffering extreme pain. Similar remarks


text:
Page:Celtic Stories by Edward Thomas.djvu/49

 and spear. But whatever be the truth, do not strive to make me as unhappy as thou art at my going. For if unhappiness makes me dull I shall get no glory, and still I must die. Cathbad, I know as well as thou, that today I shall die. Now farewell. Carry my salutes to Ulster, to the King and to Emer. Long life and health to them! I shall never see them again. This parting is a pitiful thing, and I think now of the many joyful days on foreign hills after long fighting when I have turned my face homeward towards Emer.'

Leaving Cathbad behind, Cohoolin drove alone into the midst of the enemy on the plain of Muirhevna. They saw him coming from afar off, bright like a little cornfield which the sun singles out from all others on a grey day. His sword shone bright, and a light hovered over his head. With spear and sword he reaped his way among the enemy like a reaper who is paid by the acre. The plain was covered with dead men.

The sons of Calatin had prophesied that Cohoolin's spears should slay three kings, and this made King Erc of Tara think of a trick to play on him. When Cohoolin had been lured to cast his spear at a common man, one of the enemy named Lugaid seized it.

'What shall this kill?' he asked the sons of Calatin.

'A king,' they said.

Then he hurled it and it struck Laegh, the charioteer, so that he died.

Cohoolin hurled the second spear and it was caught by Erc after it had passed through ten men.

'What shall this kill?' he asked the sons of Calatin.

'A king,' they said.

'Did ye not say the other would kill a king?'

'Yes, and it was true. It killed the king of the charioteers of Ireland.'


text: Index:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf


text:
Index:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/styles.css

.chapter { text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.5em; }

.chapter.num { text-transform: uppercase; font-size: 120%; margin-bottom: 1.5em; }

.chapter.title { font-variant: all-small-caps; }

.half { text-align: center; text-transform: uppercase; font-size: 120%; }

.poem { font-size: 92%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em; }

.title-header { text-align: center; font-size: 144%; margin-bottom: 1.5em; text-transform: uppercase; }

.wst-block-center { max-width: 25em; }

.wst-fine-block { margin-bottom: 2em; margin-top: 2em; }

.wst-freedimg-caption { font-size: 92%; font-variant: all-small-caps; }

.wst-toc-table { font-variant: small-caps; max-width: 25em; font-size: 92%; }


text: Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/1


text: Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/2


text:
Page:Celtic Stories by Edward Thomas.djvu/50

 Then Erc threw it and struck the grey horse so that never would it again pull the chariot. Cohoolin drew out the spear, bidding his friend farewell, and the Grey went away down into the Grey Pool near by.

A third time Cohoolin hurled a spear and Lugaid caught it.

'What shall this kill?' he asked the sons of Calatin.

'A king,' they said.

' Did ye not say it would kill a king this morning when Erc threw it?'

'And so it did. The king was the Grey of Macha, king of the horses of Erin,' they answered.

Lugaid took aim with the third spear at Cohoolin and the aim was true, so that the black horse took flight, knowing that his master would certainly die. He got down from his chariot to drink at the lake, and when he had drunk he bound himself with his belt to a stone pillar, to make sure that he would be standing up when he died. In a little while there he died, but so quietly that his enemies did not know. They found him standing there horribly wounded but calm-faced, and they dared not approach him. For a time also the Grey of Macha protected him; roaming about while dying he had returned and taken his stand beside the pillar; and he slew many men with teeth and hoofs. But the birds were not afraid of him, and they perched on his master's shoulder.

'Aha!' said Erc, 'that used not to be a perching place for birds, but for Emer's head,' and Lugaid knowing now that his life was gone, smote his head off and bore it homeward. But the army of Ulster was not far behind. The magic sleep had left them and they were ready for battle. Conall the Victorious was hurrying before them to help Cohoolin, when he met the Grey


text: Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/3


text: Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/4


text:
Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 3.djvu/215

 to this which he pretended to have made, appeared to me very extraordinary, considering the state in which he was found. I could not bring myself to believe that he himself felt quite assured of the correctness of his reminiscences. I determined, nevertheless, to turn them to the best account I could; but still I required a more definite point to start from. The torn address was, in my estimation, an enigma, which must first be solved; and, to effect this, I racked my brains day and night, and at last felt satisfied, that, excepting the name, (respecting which I had but few doubts,) the perfect address would run thus:—

It was therefore evident that the assassins were in league with a wine-merchant of that neighbourhood;—perhaps the wine-merchant himself was one of the perpetrators of the crime. I set my plans to work, so as to know the truth as quickly as possible; and before the end of the day I was satisfied that I had been right in directing my suspicions towards an individual named Raoul. This man had become known to me under very unfavourable auspices; he passed for one of the most daring traffickers in contraband goods, and the cabaret kept by him had long been marked out as the rendezvous where a crowd of suspicious persons nightly celebrated their riotous orgies. Raoul had moreover married the sister of a liberated galley-slave; and I was informed that he was linked in with persons of both sexes, of characters as desperate as their fortunes. In a word, his reputation was that of a loose and profligate man; and whenever a crime was denounced, if he had not positively participated in it, all thought themselves warranted in saying to him, "If it were not done by yourself, at least it was the work of your brother, or some of your relations."

Raoul, however, contrived to anticipate every scheme


text: Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/5


text: Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/6


text: Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/7


text: Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/8


text: Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/9


text:
Page:Celtic Stories by Edward Thomas.djvu/51

 of Macha, and the horse led him to the hero's body. At sight of the horse weeping he could not keep back his tears. Then he rode away, and before that day was over he fulfilled his vow that he would avenge Cohoolin's death, for he took away from Lugaid both his head and his kingdom.


text: Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/10


text: Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/11


text: Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/12


text: Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/13


text: Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/14


text:
Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/15

AMES are peculiar things. Sometimes they fit—sometimes they do not. Sight unseen, one would have suspected that George Praska would be given to turning things over slowly in his mind, seriously and deliberately; a short, stocky youth with something about him of the football build. The speculator would have been right. George's mental processes were dogged, not brilliant. For two years he had played right guard for Northfield High School. Opposing elevens had found him a massive rock that could neither be pushed back nor flanked. Coaches sent their teams out with instructions to "let that Praska alone. It's only wasting a down."

Perry King, on the other hand, belied the


text:
Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/16

 promise of his name. By all the pictures that names suggest he should have been tall, fair-haired, dashing and magnetic. Instead he was thin and dark and funereal of aspect, an ungainly boy running mostly to gangling shanks and given to unexpected, impish outbursts of mischief.

And yet, the two were friends, drawn together by their very contrasts. To George, slow of speech, Perry's wit and flippant tongue were qualities as baffling as they were sometimes alluring. To scrawny Perry, George's solid strength was something to be worshipped as personally unattainable. Perry referred to the football guard as "the Northfield ox." George called Perry "the human string-bean." They got along famously, as opposites sometimes do.

That summer carpenters and plasterers entered the high school, and did not leave until the week before school opened. Perry, who had gone off to a camp immediately after the June examinations, came back to find an added story on the school building.

"What's the idea?" he asked George Praska. "Town been growing while I've been away?"

George gave a slow smile. The thought of rapid growth for Northfield impressed him as a fine example of Perry's humor. "Home rooms," he said.


text:
Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/17

 Now Perry knew something about the home room idea in high schools; but on the moment his impish brain set out upon mischief. Into his face came a well-acted look of incredulity.

"What?" he demanded. "Home runs? How can they teach that in school? Of course, we could stand some home runs. Last spring's nine was awful. But who's going to hit them? How can you teach home run hitting?"

Praska looked at him doubtfully.

"Well, who is?" Perry demanded again. "The nine didn't hit a single home run last season."

George assumed that Perry had made an honest mistake.

"Home r-o-o-m-s," he said patiently. "Everybody in school will be assigned to a room. It will be his room until his days in the school are over. Each room will have something of the motto of the Three Musketeers: 'All for one and one for all.' Every fellow will have to be true to his room, and do things for it, and fight for it"

Perry's look was appealingly innocent. "Where?"

"Where what?"

"Where will the fights be held? In the gym?"

"Fights?" All at once a dry smile wrote itself


text:
Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/18

 unwillingly across the football guard's lips. "Up to your old tricks. Don't you ever take anything seriously? That home room plan is going to be a big thing. You'll like it."

Perry yawned. "I hope so. I've always had an idea that some day I'd find something I could like at Northfield. How's football going to run this fall?"

"We'll be there with a team," Praska said calmly. "But we've got to elect a new manager."

"What happened to Crandall?" Perry demanded.

"Family moved away. Things will be a bit unsettled, I guess, until the new manager is elected."

"When will that be, George?"

"Oh, about a week after school opens."

"Any—any candidates?"

"Not yet."

"Well—" They had been walking and had come to a corner where their ways parted. "You just tell 'em, George, that I'm ready to start managing any time they say the word."

Praska, after a moment, began to laugh. "More of your jokes," he said. "Only I know you so well, you old string-bean, I'd have thought you meant it. Good-night!"

Perry had meant it. All his life he had wor-


text:
Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/19

 shipped strength and brawn as only the thin weakling can. Football, baseball, and basket ball players had been his heroes and his earthly gods.

The first year at Northfield he had turned out for all three sports. Baseball and basketball had given him the routine of a trial; football had not even considered him. The second year he had merely played the part of a loyal rooter. He had studied football rules in the hope that it might be his good fortune to invent a play that would save the bitter end of some disastrous season. He had learned to box-score a ball game in the hope that the gods might smile on him and lead him to the throne of Official Scorer. In his infatuation with all that stood for speed and stamina, skill and endurance, he had called himself blessed if he could be linesman or foul chaser, guardian of an honored sweater or custodian of the water bucket.

And now the place of manager of the eleven was open! Last fall, when Crandall had been selected, Perry was a sophomore and had not given the place a thought. By custom the manager's berth always went to a junior or senior. But now he was eligible—he who had followed the team through two seasons without missing a game; he who had carted sweaters, minded


text: Celtic Stories/The Death of Cohoolin

title: Celtic Stories/The Death of Cohoolin


text:
Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/20

 watches and rings, and sat loyally and dutifully through the halves come wind, or rain, or snow.

His heart gave a queer sort of flutter. Hunger for the associations the manager's place would give him caused him to feel a choking in the throat. After a time he tried to analyze his chances calmly. His record as a rooter was good. He could count on Praska because—because. He paused right there; the flutter in his heart suddenly turned to pain. Praska had laughed at him.

He tried to tell himself that the football guard had not understood. When Praska, really knew. He swallowed a lump in his throat. Nobody had taken him seriously when he had turned out as a football candidate. Nobody had taken him very seriously when he had answered the call for baseball and basketball candidates. It might be, he thought in fright, that nobody would take him seriously even now.

It did not dawn upon him that he himself had created this atmosphere of foolery so fatal to his own consideration. He had elected to play the uproarious joker; and the school had come to accept him at his own valuation. Now, all at once, he began to fear to tell members of the eleven of his candidacy. And the thing he feared was


text:
Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/21

 something he had been courting through two years at Northfield High—laughter.

When school opened he came back to his studies wearing the old air of mockery. But now it was a mask to hide a hurt.

The morning was given over to getting the school settled to a new routine. For the first period of the afternoon Perry was booked for English V. He went there directly from the school cafeteria in the basement. A group of boys stood near the windows discussing home rooms. A sudden imp of perversity moved him to make sport of what all Northfield was taking soberly.

"Did you hear the big things they're going to do?" he asked casually.

He had their interest on the instant. And yet, with true dramatic instinct, he held them on the hooks of suspense. He brushed a crumb from his coat; he whistled a snatch of song; he began to study a paper he took from his pocket.

"Well, what's the big news?" a voice asked impatiently.

"Oh!" Perry folded the paper and put it away. "I thought perhaps you knew. Each room will be a club. We'll give dances, and tournaments, and—and have a clam-bake in the spring."

Mr. Quirk, who taught English V, came down


text:
Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/22

 between two aisles of desks to discover the cause of the commotion that seemed to revolve around a six-foot boy who stood importantly in its midst.

"Perry's been telling us about the home room plans," said a voice; "about the dances, and the tournaments and the clam-bakes."

"And what?" the teacher asked.

"Clam-bakes, sir."

"King said that?" Mr. Quirk seemed struggling with something that became a queer sort of strangling cough. "So King said" Again he was seized with that strange attack and went up the room to his desk holding a handkerchief to his face.

"English teachers," Perry said in a guarded voice, "get that way sometimes. It's a disease of the vocal cords from—from practicing too much reading. It's very hard on them."

Perry's conception of the home room swept joyously through the school. All that afternoon as classes gathered for periods it was the rosy topic of conversation. Perry, chuckling, told himself that he had originated just about the greatest hoax ever.

But the deception was short-lived. The hall bell, instead of ringing for the last period of the day, clanged the brassy summons that meant special assembly. The corridors grew noisy with


text:
Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/23

 the shuffling of feet as the school moved toward the auditorium. The orchestra, brought together for the first time since June, was conscious of the vacant places due to graduation and played a ragged and terrifying march.

"I have called you together to-day," Mr. Rue, the principal, said in his slow, exact way, "to tell you something of the home room plan that is to be used in this school."

Perry looked concerned. He had not expected that his bubble would burst so soon.

"Every student," the principal was saying, "will be assigned to a home room. That will be the student's home room as long as he remains in the school. The student will report there, go there for study periods and make it, in short, his school home. He will give to the room his loyalty, and the room will give him, in return, its consolidated strength. Each room will have a teacher assigned to it, and that teacher will be leader and helper, advisor and companion, captain and friend, to every student in his room. Alphabetical lists have been posted on the bulletin boards. Every student's name has been listed with the room to which he has been assigned."

Something told Perry that boys were staring at him and expressing a whispered and indignant condemnation. The orchestra struck up its rag-


text:
Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/24

 ged march, and Perry lounged out with the tide. In the hall a hand caught his arm.

"Clam-bakes!" a voice said witheringly. "What were you doing, having a good time with us, you match stick?"

"Did you take that stuff seriously?" Perry asked with an air of innocence. He smiled at them raptly. "If the Board of Health had not decided that typhoid germs are sometimes found in clams and oysters"

Somebody gave a laugh of resignation. "There's no stopping you, Perry, is there? Put it over on us again. Our fault for paying any attention to you. Come on, fellows; let's get at that home room list."

There was a movement toward the stairs. Perry, grinning, suddenly found himself beside George Praska. The football guard's face was grave.

"You shouldn't have done that, Perry."

Perry bristled at the criticism. "Why not? What harm did it do?"

"I—I don't know as I can put it into words," Praska said hesitatingly. "This home room plan is good. When you make fun of it, you weaken it. Sometimes, in politics, good men are beaten because unscrupulous opponents turn a laugh on them and then keep pounding away at that until


text:
Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/25

 the good candidate looks ridiculous. That's bad citizenship for everybody. It's bad citizenship here in the school to get people laughing at the home room. You see that, don't you?"

"I don't see as a laugh hurts anybody," Perry defended.

"But if it weakens something good, something that might be a stimulus"

"Where do you get that citizenship stuff?" Perry interrupted suspiciously. "From Mr. Banning?"

Praska nodded.

"Oh, that man." Perry snapped his fingers. "He's a pest. If he had only five minutes to live he'd say 'For five minutes we will consider the part that arbitration has played in American politics'."

Perry's voice was a faithful reproduction of the civics teacher's dry tones. Praska laughed and gave up the argument, and together they went down the stairs.

"I hope we're in the same room," said Perry.

They found, after pushing their way through the crowd that surrounded the bulletin board, that they were to be together in Room 13—and that Mr. Banning was to be the leader of the room. Perry gave a grunt of annoyance, and then became absorbed in something else. Care-


text:
Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/26

 fully he checked through the names. Nine of the football squad were in his room.

"I guess," he said with a quick look at the guard, "that Room 13 will be able to select one of its own crowd for football manager."

Praska nodded. "If they want to," he said. Perry walked home wondering what that meant.

Students were distributing circulars as he entered the school the next morning. He read the one that was handed to him:


text:
Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 3.djvu/216

 laid for entrapping him, either through his own sagacity, or the hints of his associates. I resolved, as a first step, to keep a careful watch over all the approaches to the cabaret; and I charged my agents to observe, with a scrutinizing eye, the different persons who frequented it, in order to ascertain whether, amongst the number, there might not be found one who was wounded in the knee. While my spies were at the post I had assigned to them, my own observations soon informed me that Raoul was in the constant habit of receiving at his house one or two persons of infamous character, with whom he seemed upon terms of the closest intimacy. The neighbours affirmed that they were frequently seen going out together, that they made long absences, and that it was universally believed that the greater part of honest Raoul's profits were those drawn from his dealings in contraband goods. A wine-merchant, who possessed the greatest facility of observing what was going on in Raoul's domicile, told me that he had often observed these worthy friends stealing from the house in the gloom of the evening, and returning at an early hour the following morning, apparently exhausted with fatigue, and splashed up to the neck. I further learned that he had set up a target in his garden, and was constantly practising firing with a pistol. Such were the particulars I gathered respecting this notable character from all who knew any thing of him. At the same time my agents brought me the intelligence of their having observed at the house of Raoul a man, whom, for many reasons, they surmised to be one of the assassins we were in search of. This person had first attracted their suspicions by a halt in his gait, proceeding not so much from habitual lameness, as from recent injury; and upon further examination of his person and dress, both were found in close agreement with the description given by Fontaine of one of the robbers. My agents further informed me that the man in question was generally accompanied by his wife; and that both appeared on the best possible terms with Raoul. My emissaries


text:
Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/27

 The circular was a clever piece of journalistic enterprise, but Perry did not think of that. He had been afraid to mention his ambitions; now, all at once, the fear was gone. They could not celebrate him as an uproarious joke after asking him to declare himself. In a moment all the hot desire to have part in the athletic life of Northfield was rampant in his veins. To come and go with the football crowd, to be one of them in fact and in spirit, to do his part for the team and the school, to go into dressing room and gym with none to stop him at the door! His breath began to quicken.

"Anybody seen Praska?" he demanded hurriedly.

"Just went upstairs," said a voice.

Perry's long, thin legs took the stairs two at a time. On the second floor he overtook the football guard walking toward Room 13.

"George! Wait a minute. Did you know yesterday about this circular?"

"The whole squad knew about it."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"We had promised the Breeze. They wanted to catch the school by surprise with a real piece of news—use it to impress the freshmen and get subscriptions."

"Well" All at once Perry found his


text:
Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/28

 throat gone dry. "I'm a candidate," he said. He meant it to be casual and matter-of-fact. It sounded defiant.

Praska made a noise with his lips. It might have been a subdued whistle of surprise. He kept staring down the corridor, now and then stepping out of the way of hurrying students with a sort of absent-mindedness.

"It's about time to report," he said at last.

Perry caught his arm. "I can count on you, can't I?"

"I—I don't know," the football guard said slowly and uncomfortably. "You're such a queer eel. You might take it into your head that managing the team was some sort of comedy. We've got to do what's best for the team, and you may not be the best. And then there's Room 13. If the manager comes from our room he'll give the room a black eye if he doesn't stand right up to his job. It's like electing somebody to public office just because he's a good fellow. Mr. Banning says that when you do that you usually get a good fellow who isn't up to being a good official."

Perry dropped his arm. "I thought you were a friend of mine," he said bitterly.

"I am." Praska was genuinely distressed. "If you didn't do so many fool things— I've got to


text:
Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/29

 think about the team, and Room 13, andOh, darn it, Perry, if I could only be sure of you."

Perry turned from him and walked away.

Mr. Banning was tall and spare, with hollows in his cheeks and along his neck behind his ears. His frame did not fit well into clothes—there were too many sharp corners to his being. His coat hung baggily from his shoulders; his trousers had a habit of bunching at the bottom where their legs came in contact with his shoes. But looking at his face you forgot his clothes. In his eyes was something that held you. In them was the fire, the vision, the enthusiasm of the dreamer.

There was a rapt look in his eyes this morning. Room 13 was finding that instead of being simply a school room it was a community. Young citizens of the future were having their first taste of participating in their own government. When the idea of the home room had been broached among the teachers, Mr. Banning had been quick to support the plan. He saw in it a chance to make the high school students feel that they were, in fact as well as name, citizens of the American commonwealth.

And so, when Room 13 had filled that morning, he had tried to overcome the strangeness that usually sits on boys face to face with a new venture. He had told them that, in so far as


text:
Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/30

 was possible, they themselves were going to be the rulers of the room deciding its policies and determining its judgments.

"I'll just be the umpire," he said. "I will never interfere unless I am compelled to. When an American citizen gets into trouble away from home his first thought is to appeal to his Government at Washington for help and protection. I want you to carry that same feeling with respect to Room 13. If you get into trouble in school, bring that trouble here. If you're right, the whole room will be behind you; if you're wrong, your friends here will tell you so and counsel as to what you had better do to make amends. Sometimes you may have to take punishment. If you do it will be because your own room thinks you deserve punishment, just as the various States regretfully punish those citizens who break the law. When people rule themselves wisely they have law and order. When law and order are absent the result is anarchy. Here in Northfield High, in Room 13, and in every other home room, we are going to try to be good citizens of our school republic."

The room talked over its problems with sudden seriousness. There was, first of all, the question of the attendance book. Somebody had to be appointed to mark the time when the citizens


text:
Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/31

 of Room 13 reported each morning and afternoon.

"I wonder," said Mr. Banning, "if we want just that? The United States passes laws and so do the several States. But they do not keep count on us individually to see that we obey. They presume that good citizens will obey. If there might be some method by which each student would take the responsibility of reporting his own time." The teacher looked about the room.

"Why," George Praska asked slowly, "why can't each fellow sign his own time as he comes in? It's up to him to be square about it."

They settled it in that way; and Mr. Banning, who had been hoping that they would rise to the occasion of responsibility, felt his spirits soar. What a fine understanding they had brought to Room 13! And then a cloud appeared upon his sky. Back toward the rear of the room a thin boy sprawled in a seat with dejection, bitterness and resentment written in every line of his face.

The hall bells rang for the start of a period. As Room 13 began to empty itself, Mr. Banning walked down toward the door. He was there when the thin boy approached.

"Anything wrong, Perry?" he asked.

Perry shook his head.

"What do you think of our room?"


text:
Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/32

 Perry's rancor found expression in words "The room's all right," he said, "but the crowd in it gives me a pain."

A moment later, out in the hall on his way to a period of French, he was sorry that he had let his tongue run unchecked. It had been, at best, an ungracious reply to a friendly question. But gall and wormwood were thick on his lips. Mr. Banning had spoken of the way the room would stand together; and yet, with a majority of the football squad on its roll, the room was shying away from his candidacy. And he wanted so much to feel that he was part of the athletic life of Northfield!

If you're right, Mr. Banning had said, the whole room will be behind you. If you're wrongPerry didn't finish that thought.

"It's just talk," he told himself angrily. "They won't make a fool of me."

And so, between classes and also during the period in the school lunch room at noon, he ridiculed and hooted the home room plan. In every school there are those who are more or less at outs with the rules and who hinder rather than help; around him Perry drew all these unworthy malcontents. All at once, conscious of the exclusive character of his audience, he dropped his tirade. He had not bargained to become a leader


text:
Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/33

 of bad eggs. Fate, he told himself as he left the lunch room, was playing him some shabby and diabolical tricks when the fellows he admired most would have none of him and those that the school viewed as trouble-makers accepted him as a prophet.

George Praska, already arrived in Room 13, called to him a greeting as he entered. Had George appeared to be at all uncomfortable Perry might have experienced a soothing sense of compensation. But the football guard's unchanged friendliness stung. To Perry it was a sign that Praska viewed lightly the happenings of the morning. Scorn he could have met with scorn; but indifference from one he had rated as his friend rankled.

And then came a reckless desire to show them all that he did not care a fig for their opinions. A fresh attendance sheet was on Mr. Banning's desk. There were the A. M. and the P. M. columns. He found his name, moved his pencil out to the afternoon file and wrote:

The next boy to go up to the desk to register stared, looked down the room at Perry, and stared again. Perry chuckled. Then Hammond, the quarterback, saw it, and called Praska and Littlefield, the right end. This time Perry


text:
Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/34

 looked down at the floor. After a while he saw them move away from the book, walk over to one of the windows, and stand there talking. Once more that day he had acted on impulse, and once more he was sorry. He squirmed in his seat, and would have given much to have known what the three football players were talking about.

It was Littlefield who finally came toward him. "What does that funny stuff on the sheet mean?" he asked.

"Twenty-five cents is a quarter," Perry said gruffly. "It's simple. Quarter to one."

"I see," Littlefield said gravely, and went back and joined the others.

On the way out of the room, for the first period of the afternoon, Perry overtook Praska.

"Did you tell them?" he demanded. He despised himself for asking the question, but something within him would not let him rest until he knew.

"I told them during lunch hour," the guard answered.

They went down the hall together. Apparently, to Praska, there was nothing more to tell. Perry bit his lips.

"What—what did they say?"

Praska's answer was cryptic. "Why did you write that fool thing on the attendance sheet?"


text:
Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/35

 Perry had written his cabalistic sign to show that he cared naught for public opinion in his home room, yet— During the first period his thoughts were far removed from algebra; luckily, he was not called upon. With algebra out of the way came a study period, and he went back to Room 13. The place was silent save for the occasional scratch of a pen or rustle of a page. It bore every evidence of having something to do and being busily engaged with doing it.

Perry got his long body settled into a seat. Mr. Banning gave a seemingly absent glance and went back to some work he was doing. There was work awaiting Perry too; but with his chin cupped in a thin, bony hand he stared at the desk. Boys came in and took places around him, but he did not lift his eyes. Why had he written that fool thing? Praska's question could mean only that by that silly act he had weakened whatever chance he had had.

"Perry!"

He raised his head dully.

"Perry King."

Mr. Banning was calling. He roused himself and went up to the teacher's desk. He saw Littlefield's eyes leave a book and frowningly watch his journey. At that his own eyes became sullen. He had no doubt what the subject of


text:
Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/36

 the interview would be. If Littlefield expected to sit there and gloat at the sight of him offering apology and excuse to Mr. Banning, then Littlefield was doomed to disappointment.

But Mr. Banning's smile was warm. He motioned to a chair drawn close to his own.

"We'll have to keep our voices down," he said, "so as not to disturb the others. I want to talk to a number of the fellows—personally—you among them. Later, each home room is to elect delegates to a central body that will be a sort of school Congress. Some one of these home rooms, as time runs along, is going to develop students with the powers of leadership. That home room is going to become the leading home room. It is going to write its influence into every classroom, every organization, every team in Northfield. We want Room 13 to be that leader. That's the reason why I want to talk to you and some of the others who are going to be the leaders of the room."

Perry sat there in the grip of numbing amazement. To be called in conference as a leader. His body stiffened. He kept his position in the chair, very still and very straight, as though surprise and wonderment had frozen him to a rigidity of shocked incredulity.

"I wanted a few words with you, Perry, about


text:
Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/37

 leadership. Our leaders in the State Capitol and at Washington are not accidents. They have achieved because they have done definite things; task by task, effort by effort, step by step, they have gone ahead and have grown in reputation. Any man can do to-day what should have been done yesterday. The leader wins his place because he can see ahead, to-morrow from to-day. Lincoln, for instance. He became a leader because he was one of the first to see and to proclaim that this Nation could not continue to exist half slave and half free. You can understand that, Perry?"

Perry nodded. And still he sat in that attitude of frozen astonishment.

"Leadership," Mr. Banning went on, "is wisdom. It carefully considers what it is about to do and sees clearly what result will follow. Most people do things on the spur of the moment without due thought. That's the reason there are so few persons fit to lead. There is one thing that Room 13 must never do—it must never go off half cocked. Often mistakes, once made, can never be remedied. Sometimes they can be retrieved. The true leader always knows when to admit he has been wrong. That's all, Perry. You'll remember it, won't you?"

"Yes, sir," said Perry, and arose from the


text:
Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/38

 chair and started back toward his desk. Sometimes mistakes can be retrieved! The words kept echoing in his mind. Sometimes. Abruptly he turned about and went back to Mr. Banning's desk.

The attendance sheet lay where it had been left early in the afternoon. The teacher of civics, reading a book and marking it, did not look up to see what Perry might be doing. The boy found a rubber in his pocket. With his long, thin body draped ungracefully over the desk he erased the thing he had written that afternoon and in its place put a matter-of-fact "12:45." Still Mr. Banning did not look up from his book.

With eyes lowered Perry returned to his desk. Had his head been lifted he would have seen Littlefield looking after him at first with a frown and then with a quiet smile. And had he looked back he would have seen that Mr. Banning was covertly surveying him over the top of the book.

More than once, that night, Perry's cheeks flushed at the memory of practical jokes with which he had hocus-pocused the school. At the time he had viewed these deceptions as mere fun; now they taunted him with the fact that they had written his reputation as a trickster. He had let his prankish moods sway him, and had not looked ahead. No wonder the football crowd,


text:
Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/39

 seeking to select a leader, passed him by with slight consideration!

He had been bitter at Praska, but that was passing. Praska had been looking ahead. The football guard had been thinking of something bigger than merely pleasing a friend. Secretly Perry had often viewed himself as a brainier chap than the plodding guard; he had even been a little contemptuous as those of his character are apt to be. Now in his chastened mood, he saw that Praska's slow mind moved irresistibly to logical conclusions. Praska was a thinker. Perry felt cheap and insignificant.

However, an awakening was upon him. Mr. Banning, during that short talk in the home room, had opened his mind to many things. Whether or not he was to become a leader of Room 13, it came to him that he owed it to himself, to his school, to be something more than a humbugging jester. His dream of the managership of the football team was gone. He put it from him with a sigh. In the void it left came a resolution to play a part that never again would cause any one to distrust his capabilities because of foolish things he had done.

There had been an understanding in Northfield that the football team would announce the selection of its manager next morning. But no


text:
Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/40

 notice appeared on the bulletin boards as the home rooms gathered and no information was given out as the day wore on. Twice that afternoon, in Room 13, Perry saw Praska and Littlefield studying him and trying to hide their scrutiny. What they might think of him now had ceased to vex him.

After classes he came back to Room 13 to get a notebook. The Dramatic Club had the use of the auditorium for a tryout of candidates for the Christmas play; as he came from the room, a group of the club members were on their way to the stairs.

"Something's going on in the football squad," one of the crowd said wisely. "I heard that they were holding up the ballot and keeping an eye on one of the candidates. Wonder who it can be?"

Perry wondered too—and felt a shaft of envy for the lucky fellow who still had a chance.

That evening, on the street, he met Praska. The friendly greeting he had resented in Room 13 now warmed him. They spoke of many things, but all the while the football guard seemed turning something in his mind in his slow way. Suddenly:

"Did Mr. Banning ask you to change that attendance sheet?"


text:
Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/41

 "No," said Perry.

Praska fell into a silence. Somehow Perry got the idea that, if he spoke again, his words would hold something of moment. And at last he spoke.

"I—I'd watch my step for—the next few days."

Just that—nothing more. Perry was disappointed. Their ways parted. Something that Mr. Banning had said had started Perry on another line of thought and he wanted Ida Tarbell's "Lincoln." He was coming out of the public library, with the book under one arm, when a phrase of Praska's came back to him. For the next few days! He stumbled down the library steps, unconsciously hugging the book, lost for the moment to all else but a great and surging hope. For now he knew the truth. He was the fellow the football squad was considering.

It was hours after he went to bed that night before he fell asleep. His ambitions, called back to life, painted a riotous succession of pleasing pictures. He saw himself as one of the football squad, traveling to games in their bus, a locker-room companion of all who wore the moleskin, sitting in by right at their most sacred conferences. His soul thrilled. Watch his step? He'd watch it as step was never watched before.

The morning sent him to Northfield High


text:
Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/42

 with a buoyant step. But the day was to bring disaster, black and overwhelming. Passing out of Room 13 for the first period, in some unaccountable way he slipped and fell. Instinctively, as he lost his balance, he caught the boy next to him. That boy caught at another. Five of them sprawled in undignified disorder just outside the door.

"What's going on here?" Mr. Banning called.

"I slipped, sir," Perry answered. He found some of the students treating the affair as a prank. "I slipped," he said sharply to those around him.

An hour later, during English V, Mr. Quirk asked some one to open a window. Perry, sitting on an outside aisle, sprang to obey. He threw a window wide; and a sporting September breeze, wafting in, lifted a pile of papers from the teacher's desk and scattered them about the room.

"I asked for air," Mr. Quirk said tartly; "not a cyclone."

Perry retrieved the papers. As he came back to his seat along the aisle students winked at him. His face was dark. If they thought he was up to his old tricks—. He tried to catch a glimpse of Praska, but Praska's head happened to be turned the other way.

At noon, in the cafeteria, he merely picked at the food he got at the long service counter.


text:
Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/43

 He wished that he could talk with Praska. He wanted to assure him that the things that had happened that morning had not been premeditated. But the football guard, with a group of other football players, sat at a table in a corner. After a while Perry brought back his dishes and wandered out into the school hall.

It did not need a great amount of perspicacity to tell him that his chances had probably become precarious. He had accustomed the school to look to him for buffoonery until now the inclination was to view all his actions as jest and banter. It was driven home to him anew how much reputation is shaped by the things done from day to day. Reputation! His reputation—and Praska's! A bitter smile twitched at his lips.

Yet, because Mr. Banning had given him a vision of leadership, he did not fall back into a reckless mood as of old. Leaders, he told himself, must look ahead. And so, after a time, he came back to Room 13. The clock was about to usher in a study period. A few students were already in the room. Mr. Banning, catching his eye as he entered, beckoned him to his desk.

"Perry," he said, handing him a written order, "will you go down to the office and get me a bottle of red ink?"

The boy departed on the errand, and in the


text:
Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/44

 hall met Praska and some of the football fellows on their way to the home room. In the office, what with some scholars presenting excuses for having been absent that morning and others handing in requests to be dismissed before their time that afternoon, there was some delay. The study period had started in Room 13 when Perry returned.

And then, all in an instant, the crowning disaster of the day happened. He was holding out the bottle to Mr. Banning, and the teacher's hand was outstretched to take it. He released the bottle, saw too late that Mr. Banning did not have it, grabbed frantically—and missed. The bottle crashed in pieces on the floor. A pool of red ink spread over the varnish. Some one out in the room among the desks gave an exclamation of despair.

The voice was Praska's.

All through the study period Perry's white face was before Mr. Banning's eyes. At the words of regret that had faltered from the boy's lips the teacher had merely nodded as a sign that he had heard and had sent him back to his seat. But the evidence of that white face could not be denied. Perry had not deliberately slipped the bottle from his grasp. And so, as the period


text:
Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/45

 drew to an end, the man, walking down the aisle, dropped another order at the boy's place.

"Get me another bottle sometime to-day," he said in an undertone.

Some of the color came back to Perry's face. As the class filed out, Praska crowded over to him.

"What happened, Perry?"

"It was an accident." He could say no more for there was a choke in his throat.

In the hall Littlefield called to the guard. Perry went on alone to his next recitation. The managership and the bottle of ink, he muttered, had slipped inexorably from his fingers at the same moment. Several times he had felt that he was on the crest of success or in the valley of failure. There could be no doubt about this last happening. He was beaten.

It was indicative of the way he had begun to look at things that, even in this bitter moment, his thoughts went to Room 13. The red stain of the ink was before his eyes. So long as that stain stayed there it would be a reproach. The floor of the room would be marred. There would always be some to say that, in one of his silly gay moments, Perry King had. He winced.

When his last recitation of the day was over, he went down to the office for his ink.


text:
Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/46

 "I broke the other bottle," he said. "I'd like permission to clean up the mess I made."

He came back to Room 13 with the ink; nor did he know that, as he passed up the stairs with the bottle in his hands, Littlefield saw him through an open door of the gym and cried a hurried word over his shoulder to others within the place.

From the home room Perry went down to the manual training department in a basement wing. From the janitor's storeroom he got water in a pail, a brush and some sand. In the wood shop he got varnish stain.

Room 13 was deserted when he came back to it. On his knees, he wet the brush, spread sand over the red splash, and began to rub. It was hard work. The sweat ran down his face, and he took off his collar and opened his shirt at the throat. By and by he mopped up the water and sand and surveyed his labors. The red was fading out.

An hour passed, and then the sand had rubbed off the varnish down to the white boards. His hands and wrists and arms ached. Slowly, carefully, he dried the floor, and then began to fan it with a book. Thirty minutes passed. The floor was dry to his touch. He took the varnish stain and painted over the spot where the ink had been spilled. When he was finished, the floor, save


text:
Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/47

 that one place looked fresher, was all the one color. It was no longer marred.

He stood up, stretched his muscles, and sighed. Suddenly, at a sound, he whirled toward the door. Praska was there, and Littlefield and Hammond, the quarterback, and others of the football squad. Perry's face went white once more.

"You had us guessing for a while," said Hammond. "We knew you had the head, Perry, but"

"Why did you bother to clean it?" a voice asked.

"It was a blot on Room 13," said Perry, steadily.

They stood there looking across the room, the football crowd in a group, the lone boy with his collar still unbuttoned. Praska began to chuckle.

"You old bean-pole!" he said affectionately. "We thought we had you figured right. That's the reason we elected you manager of the term."


text:
Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/48

ERRY KING, tall, thin, bony and ungainly, stood beside a pile of tumbled sweaters and tasted an importance that was new, and strange, and intoxicating. Bristow, the editor of the Northfield Breeze, had actually asked him to bring back the story of the game for the school paper. And, if that were not glory enough, Hammond, quarterback and captain of the eleven, had asked him to keep check on the time. He caught Hammond's eye and made a signal with his fingers. Seven minutes to play! A great game, with Northfield in the lead 14 to 7; and he, Perry King, with his part in it all.

The stands were bleak and deserted; the crowd was following the game along the side lines. The sky was gray, the ground was damp, a chill wind blew across the field—but Perry did not bother to button his topcoat across his narrow chest. He did not even feel the penetrating rawness of the day. The ambition that had been part of him


text:
Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/49

 for two years, the yearning to have some part in the athletic life of his school, had at last been realized. Overnight, as it were, through his election as manager of the team, he had become a somebody.

He told himself that he had made a good job of this, his first game. He had checked up suit cases in the Northfield gym and had grouped them in a corner so that the start had been without confusion and last-minute frenzy. He had checked up again just before leaving and had found Littlefield, the right end, to be minus his head guard. They had reached the railroad station late, to find a clamoring line of men and women in front of the ticket window; but he had purchased tickets for the team the day before. "Some head," George Praska, the big guard, had commended. The same glow that had run through Perry then ran through him now at the memory.

A cheer broke from the handful of Northfield rooters who had accompanied the team.

"Wasn't it Praska who stopped that play?" a voice asked at Perry's elbow.

"I wasn't watching just then," Perry answered.

The voice was deferential. "I suppose you've got to just close your eyes to the game and give


text:
Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/50

 all your attention to the watch. It's just like being one of the team, isn't it?"

"Well," Perry said carelessly, "it's not exactly that."

This was another thing new to him, having somebody tag along at his elbow. He was not without vanity; he found the experience pleasant. Even if the tagger was only Johnnie Baffin, it showed that already his position was felt and marked.

Baffin was, perhaps, the least of all the Northfield students. Every high school has a few of his kind—good-natured but dull fellows who find the simplest studies hard, who are baffled by problems demanding thought and analysis, and who blunder along in a sort of scared and pathetic helplessness. They have no opinions of their own, follow blindly where the more venturesome lead, and contribute absolutely nothing to the welfare of their schools. How Johnnie Baffin had managed to get through his freshman and sophomore years was the ever-present Northfield mystery. It was a mystery to Johnnie, too. Only the faculty knew how narrow the margin of his escape. Had he dropped out of school his going would have created not even a ripple. The boy in the next seat might not have marked that he had gone. For even in a crowd he was always


text:
Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/51

 on the outskirts, a shrinking, unnoticed, almost apologetic figure.

The Northfield cheer came presumptuously from the few Northfield throats.

"I guess it's our ball, isn't it?" Baffin asked.

Perry surveyed the field. "Of course it's our ball. There's Hammond crouched behind the center ready to take the pass. Where's your eyes?"

"Yes; our ball," Baffin said with more confidence. "Not much chance to score again, I guess."

"Lots of chance," said Perry, "with a corking good team like ours."

"Yes, I guess there is," Baffin agreed. He never argued his opinion, but quickly ran to cover and surrendered. The school—those who observed him at all—called him "Me, too, Johnnie."

The team did score again, Hammond carrying the ball around the end on a quarterback run.

"Didn't I tell you?" Perry cried, and made note of the length of the run on a slip of paper. A minute later the game was over. Even as the team cheered its rivals, even as the players broke and ran for the dressing room, Perry gathered up the sweaters and with full and overflowing arms staggered after.


text:
Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/52

 There was work for him to do in his capacity as manager. First he collected from the manager of the rival school one half the traveling expenses of his team, and gravely signed a receipt for the money. Then sitting on a bench, he drew from his pockets a miscellaneous collection—rings, watches, fobs, a pair of glasses, some greenbacks and a jingling handful of silver. Next, with a memorandum before him, he began to count the money into piles. This was part of the manager's job at Northfield—acting as custodian of those valuables that the players brought to the game.

Littlefield was the first Northfield boy dressed. "Hi, there, Perry; I gave you eighty cents."

Perry consulted the memorandum. Littlefield's name was there with "80R." written next to it. Perry handed him a half a dollar, a quarter and a nickel. "You'll have to pick out your own ring," he said. "Pick a good one."

Littlefield grinned good-naturedly at this ancient joke.

"One dollar and five cents for me," came another voice.

Hammond called from down the room. "Be sure you don't over-pay some of those pirates and run short, Perry. I'm down on your books for thirty-five cents."


text:
Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/53

 Presently the last player had drawn what was coming to him, and Perry's responsibility was ended. At the door he kept shouting, "Ten minutes to train-time, fellows, ten minutes!" One by one, as they filed out, he handed them their return trip tickets. When the last player was accounted for he went stalking after them, a long-legged person pleasingly responsive to the savor of his duties and responsibilities.

When the train came in, the team made the usual scramble for places. Perry found himself in a seat with Praska. The guard was watching him with a quizzical expression in his eyes. Perry, new to his position, grew uneasy.

"What's the matter? Did I do something wrong?"

Praska shook his head. "I was thinking of something else. Why did you make a note of what everybody gave you?"

"I wanted to have it right, of course."

"But if we gave you only four or five dollars, you'd pay back only four or five dollars, wouldn't you?"

"But I wanted to make sure each fellow got back exactly what was coming to him."

Praska nodded. "That's the value of having a thing in black and white. You know just what value to give each one. You don't have to wonder


text:
Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 3.djvu/217

 had succeeded in tracing their abode, which was on the first floor of a house situated in the Rue Coquenard; and here, in the apprehension of giving the slightest hint of their suspicions to the suspected party, their investigations had rested.

These particulars strengthened all my conjectures, and I was no sooner in possession of them, than I determined to go myself, and watch near the house which had been described to me. It was now night, and I was compelled to defer my purpose till the coming morn; however, before the sun had risen, I was on the look-out in the Rue Coquenard. I remained there without perceiving anything worthy of notice till four o'clock in the afternoon, and was beginning to grow impatient of the little success our plans seemed likely to realize, when my agents pointed out to me an individual, whose features and name suddenly occurred to my memory. "See! there he is," cried they; and scarcely had my eyes glanced over him, than I recognised a person named Court, whom, from previous circumstances fresh in my recollection, I instantly set down as one of the assassins I was in search of. His principles, which were of the most abandoned nature, had drawn down upon him, on many important occasions, severe consequences. He had just been punished by a six months' imprisonment for some fraudulent act, and I well remembered having arrested him once before for a highway robbery. In a word, he was one of those degraded beings who, like Cain, bore on his forehead the stamp of shame and death.

Without being much of a prophet, one might boldly have predicted that this man was destined to a scaffold. One of those presentiments, which have never deceived me, told me that he had at length reached the term of that perilous career to which a blind fatality had conducted him. However, not wishing to hazard success by precipitancy, I inquired, with all possible caution, what were his means of procuring a subsistence. No one could satisfy me; and it appeared a notorious


text:
Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/54

 about this fellow or that fellow. No guessing; you just study what's on the slip."

There was a quality in Praska's voice now that gave Perry pause. He had heard that speculative, slow, thoughtful tone before. Usually it meant that the guard, after his own deliberate fashion, was establishing a point he wanted to make. Perry glanced at him suspiciously.

"Funny, isn't it," the guard went on, "how important things are always set down in writing and not left to chance. The man who buys a house gets a deed. If he puts money in the bank he gets a bank book. If he goes into business he hires a bookkeeper."

"What's funny about that?" Perry wanted to know.

"Nothing." Praska's voice was mild. "If a big business house has a good job open and three men apply, it makes them fill out a statement. With everything before it, it can think things over, decide what man is best qualified, and—"

But Perry waited to hear no more. A light had broken upon him. One movement and he was out of the seat; another, and he was in the aisle of the coach.

"Leading up to another argument about the home room election, aren't you?" he demanded. "Almost caught me, too, didn't you? Getting so a


text:
Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/55

 fellow can't come near you without hearing about ballots, ballots, ballots. You're a fine football player, George, but on this election business you're a three-ringed nuisance. I'm going up front and find a seat in which I can ride in peace."

Praska smiled patiently. "You admitted, Perry, that there was nothing funny about setting things down in writing in banks, and"

But Perry fled through the aisle up toward the coach ahead.

The smile remained on Praska's face after Perry had disappeared through the car door, but it did not extend to his eyes, nor was there humor running through his mind. The conductor came through, he handed over his ticket absently, and his gaze wandered out of the window. The train was running through rolling country—brown fields stripped bare of their harvest, cows standing in fall-thinned pastures with bovine placidity, white houses seen through the bare trees and tidy, red barns. But the pastoral picture might just as well not have been there. He did not see it.

His mind was back in Room 13. The room had been in operation for only three weeks, but already it had made a deep and telling impression upon him. He had for it the passionate love that the true citizen feels for his country. It was his country—his school country, his repub-