I am sure he will be very much pleased with the--Besides,"
she broke off to say with considerable heat, "Mr. Percival is not
as high and mighty as he imagines himself to be. Other people have
something to say about the management of this camp. You forget,--and
so does he perhaps,--that we have a council of ten. I rather fancy--"
"Pooh!" sniffed her aunt. "He is worse than all the Tammany bosses
put together. The other men on the council of ten eat out of his
hand, as Abel Landover says. His word is law,--or, I should have
said, his smile is law. All he has to do is to grin and the argument
is over. I've never seen anything like the way people give in when
he smiles. It is disgusting."
"Please don't forget, Auntie, that he did not smile on Saturday
when Manuel Crust stopped him in front of the meeting-house and
said he was going to take Sunday off from work up in the woods. He
didn't smile then, did he? And there were a dozen men planning to
take the day off with Manuel Crust, too."
"I confess I was frightened," admitted Mrs. Spofford, with a slight
shudder. "That Manuel Crust is a--a dangerous man. He carries a
knife. I saw it."
"Were your sympathies with Manuel Crust or Mr.
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