"I rise to order!" cried Mr. Spry. "I'm not going to be insulted to my face and stand it. I claim the protection of the chair and the committee in general. What right had I to doctor the report? If people use foul language on a committee and lose their tempers and misbehave themselves at a public function, let 'em take the consequences!" "You shut your mouth!" shouted Weekes, "or I'll make you. A pink-eyed rabbit of a man like you to stab me in the back with your pen and ink! I----" "Order--order!" cried Pearn and Taverner simultaneously. Everybody began to talk at once, and Brendon turned to the chairman. "Why the mischief don't you keep order?" he asked. "Easy to say--easy to say," answered Adam wildly. "But what mortal man's going to do it?" "'Twas you broke up the last meeting, Weekes, an' I don't think none the better of you for it," grumbled Mr. Huggins. "All the same us shan't get through no business now--an' the beer be all drunk and the time's past ten----" "I propose we adjourn," said Mr. Norseman. "And so do I," added Brendon. "Never knowed myself that a lot of growed-up men could make such a row and be so foolish." "The meeting is suspended _sine die_, gentlemen," declared Adam Churchward, "and I may add that I'll not be chairman again. No--I will not. The strain is far too severe for a sensitive man." "Just like you," answered Weekes. "The moment you get into a mess, you curl up, same as a frightened woodlouse. You're not the proper man for a chairman." "And you're not the proper man for a committee," answered Adam, very pink and hot. "'Tis all your fault, and I say it out, notwithstanding the--the relations in which we stand. You've not the self-control for a committee. And you do swear a great deal too much--both in public and private life." They wrangled on while Norseman and Brendon departed, and Spry only stayed to see his report scattered on the floor under everybody's feet. Then, with an expression of opinion unusually strong for him, he took his hat and went home. Mr. Pearn looked after the crockery, Mr. Taverner assisted Valentine Huggins into his coat and saw him on his way. "Out of evil cometh good, Jacob," said the ancient. "Be it as 'twill, I've got Moses off my back. But this here have furnished a dreadful lesson to me not to push myself forward into the public eye. Never again will I seek to be uplifted in company. 'Twas only the sudden valour of beer made me offer myself, and I've never had a easy moment since." Elsewhere Mr. Churchward and Jarratt quickly settled their difference. Indeed, as soon as Spry had departed, the chairman adopted an attitude very disloyal to the postmaster, and even called him an officious little whippersnapper. This appeased the injured Weekes, and when his future father-in-law went further and invited him home to see Mary and drink some whisky, Jarratt relented.