"You see," he said, "we are few here, and I have been kept busy with the brewing uneasiness in town and cannot handle the murder affair satisfactorily. I have come to ask you to help me, if you are sufficiently at leisure. We cannot get any clues at all, save that the man was killed by a bullet of large calibre in the hands of a good shot, as the distance from which it was fired would seem to show. The road has been searched but nothing found, and the crowd that went with you to the dying man's side trampled away all clues on the ground. "My men have reported to me the curious affair of last night," continued the Chief. "I suppose you have a explanation for it; in any event, it must be followed up. The people must be diverted, and more must be done at once than I can do. Will you help me?" "Yes," said Oakes. "Of course!" "Hello, what ails your head?" said the Chief, after thanking him. And then Oakes told him as much as was necessary of the events of the day before. "I am very glad your _carpenters_ have arrived," said the Chief; "they may help." He smiled, as did Oakes. They understood one another--they were in similar lines of business. "Now that I have a hand in this thing, let's all get acquainted," said Oakes; and he called in Moore and Elliott, and the discussion became general. Elliott was admitted unreservedly to our councils, especially as Oakes knew that he held the keys to the conviction of the assassin--the witness. Oakes, in his fluent style, acquainted the Chief with the fact that the negro was already under surveillance and that, in his opinion, he should be brought to Mona for further examination. "Yes, but we must smuggle him in. It would be unwise to let the populace know we have him now; they might infer he was the murderer and violence would certainly be done him. At present, I have all I can do to keep order in the town," said Hallen. Then he gave a lucid account of the wave of suspicion and of the evidences of nervous tension the citizens were showing. "Why," said he, "almost every man suspects his neighbor. Life-long friends are suspicious of one another and business is nearly at a standstill. One man looked at another in an absent-minded sort of a way to-day, and the other retaliated with a blow and an oath, and asked him if he would look at his own arms--not his neighbor's." "Yes," said Oakes, "we have here a great mental emotion--_suspicion_--to deal with, which may amount to a public calamity unless checked. One must always take account of the actions and reasonings of communities. Emotional waves rush through them as through individuals sometimes. Look at history, and consider the waves of religion, emotional in character, that have occurred. Look at the unreasonableness developed in our own country from ignorance and fear, when witches were burned at the stake!" "Oakes," said Moore with a smile, "you seem to make mental processes and conditions as much of a study as the physician does."