"It’s another demonstration by Mr. Hampden’s friends," he said with something of heat in his cold cynical voice. "That blatherskite Kearney has led a crowd of hoodlums up Nob Hill, and it looks as though there would be wild times before the night is over. We passed a gang of the riffraff a few minutes ago, and they were headed up California Street, yelling like wild Indians about burning down the Stanford and Hopkins places. It’s a fine pass that this toleration of the worst elements has brought us to. There’s just one way to deal with those fellows, and that’s to call out the troops and mow them down. If we were under a city government that had the first notion of protecting life and property, it would have had the whole gang in jail without waiting for murder and arson." With this threat in the air, the Nob Hill meeting became a matter of immediate interest. If a riot should start at that point, it might be followed by an attack on the Van Ness Avenue district, and it evidently behooved me to judge for myself the temper and designs of the crowd. "If my friends are engaged in any such desperate business, I’m afraid it’s my duty to keep them from getting any further into mischief," I said; "so I’ll bid you a good evening." "You don’t mean you are going out into that mob, do you?" cried Miss Kendrick. "That is my present purpose," I replied with some exultation at the anxiety betrayed in her tone and look. "Well, I’m sure you’re old enough to know better, but I see you are an obstinate man-creature, and it’s no use to say anything to you. But when you get there, I hope you’ll remember that you’re not a regiment of soldiers, and leave the business of the police to the police." "Send word if you’re arrested," said Mr. Baldwin scornfully, "and I’ll see what can be done about bail." I bowed my thanks, and went out into the hall where I found Miss Fillmore awaiting me. "Do you think Mr. Parks is in that mob?" she asked, with a charming air of embarrassment. "I don’t doubt it," I replied. "He is so impulsive," she said. "I saw him this afternoon, and he was very much excited over something that happened to Mr. Merwin. I am very much afraid he will let his feelings run away with him to-night." There was a depth of anxiety in her eyes that Parks ought to have been proud to inspire, and even with the call of conflict urging me to be gone, I spoke a few words of comfort, and reflected on the mysteries of attraction that should draw together the gentle Mercy and the impassioned leader of revolt against society. "If you find him to-night, try to restrain him," she pleaded. "It is his good heart--his sympathy with the suffering--that brings him into these troubles." "I shall do all I can," I promised. Outside the house, I stopped for a few minutes to see that my watchmen were on duty, and to learn if they had observed any signs of trouble.