_St. Elmo Peattie, the Sheriff, is simply confounded: for he is an honest villager, fearing God, and, consequently, no man. He is shocked at The Devil daring to put any man—Magnus, Taft, Wilson, Morgan, Rockefeller, or even Roosevelt—above the Law. Though he has no authority in the matter—the warrants being in the Lieutenant’s hands—Peattie feels called upon to protest in the name of civic dignity, and to uphold the faith of his fathers—the faith in which Jefferson wrote; on which Burr, a Vice-President, was convicted of treason; for which Washington fought and Nathan Hale died._ PEATTIE (_to the Detectives_) What’s gone wrong, pardners? Why don’t you handcuff that there dynamiter? LIEUTENANT (_roughly_) What dynamiter? PEATTIE (_points to Agnus_) Fellow you’ve been hunting for all day— LIEUTENANT (_taking out his note-book_) Will you swear he’s a dynamiter? PEATTIE I ain’t never heard of him before. How’ll _I_ swear? LIEUTENANT (_trying to make his tone official by speaking sternly, as if determined to get at evidence_) You’ve seen him about the village every day? PEATTIE Sure—but— LIEUTENANT Just answer my questions: how has he behaved? PEATTIE I see him going into Pete Mellish’s and into Gus Hobbs’s— LIEUTENANT (_with heavy constabulary levity_) And—did he try to dynamite—er—Pete Jellyfish—or Corn Cob’s—whatever their names are? PEATTIE Hush, man! Pete’s our grocer. Gus’s our butcher. Prisoner’s human, ain’t he? He’s got to eat— LIEUTENANT (_making note_) Bought groceries and meat daily. (_Relieved_) Well, that ain’t criminal. PEATTIE (_sulkily_) I never see him dynamite nobody, if that’s what you’re trying to get at. Allus bin civil enough to me. Gi’me a cigar once. LIEUTENANT (_poising pencil with same heavy police humor_) Ah! Cigar! Loaded? PEATTIE (_annoyed_) No, ’twarn’t. ’Twas as good as any two fer a nickel I ever bought myself. SCHWARTZENHOPFEL (_scandalized as he remembers the episode and the price_) Two for a nickel! It was a—(_Pulls himself up sharply_) LIEUTENANT (_explaining apologetically, supposing the outbreak to be due to a millionaire’s ignorance of such cheap matters_) An expression, Mr. Magnus—“twofera nickel” is two cigars for five cents. Rubes smoke ’em. PEATTIE (_angry_)