"Why for shouldn't us have a lady hero? How would it be, Mr. Chairman, if Jezebel, Queen of Sheba, went among 'em?" "Jezebel wasn't Queen of Sheba," answered several voices simultaneously. "Not?" exclaimed the publican. "There now! If I didn't always think she was." "You should read your Bible better, Noah Pearn," said Mr. Norseman; "and I object to women displaying themselves in the show at all." "Churchwarden's right: don't have no women," advised John Prout. "They'm not fitted in their intellects to stand the strain of a public procession without getting too overbearing. They'm better kept under, in my opinion. You might lift up some comely maiden and turn her head for all time by it." "If we had a queen at all, it should be Queen Elizabeth," said Mr. Churchward. "Why?" asked Weekes. "To walk along with Sir Francis Drake," answered the postmaster promptly. "That's sound history and sound sense." "Don't have no queens," urged Mr. Prout. "Mark me, they'll spoil all with their giggling and nonsense." "How be the heroes going to travel?" inquired Taverner. "For my part I think a hay-wain would be best. They'll get in a jakes of a mess if they go afoot down to Little Lydford. You know what the road is, even in dry weather." "_C[oe]teris paribus_," answered Mr. Churchward thoughtfully. "Very likely," admitted Taverner, "but, all the same, a hay-wain will be best." Then it was that Jarratt Weekes allowed his gathering anger to bubble forth in a very acute explosion. "Why the hell can't you talk English?" he asked the chairman. "I'm sick to death of your bumbling noise. Whenever you don't know what the deuce to answer a man, you fall back on some jargon, that may be Latin, or may be gibberish more likely. You don't know any more than us what your twaddle signifies; but you know we can't laugh at you, and so you're safe to pretend a lot of larning you haven't got. What does _c[oe]teris paribus_ mean, anyway?--I ask you that afore this committee, and I will be answered!" The chairman grew red and blew a heavy blast through his nostrils. Mr. Spry cried out "Shame--shame!"; Mr. Huggins was frightened. "The committee is adjourned," answered Adam very haughtily. "And for the benefit of those who have so little education, and who envy those who may be better endowed in that respect, I may remark that _c[oe]teris paribus_ means--it means, in the manner in which I employed it, that the question of a hay-wain shall be decided at the next meeting. And that is all I have to say, except that I expect an apology." "And all I have to say is that you won't get one," answered Mr. Weekes very rudely. The company rose, and a date having been appointed for future deliberations, every man prepared to go on his way.