"
"I wonder what the crowd would do, if it did know?" asked Pollard,
gazing out curiously over the throngs of pleasure-seekers. "That shows
what a dreamer you are, Dave, and how little you know of your own fellow
citizens. What would the crowd do? Why, it would change itself into
a mob. Mlle. Nadiboff would be hustled off out of town, Lemaire would
be lynched, or mighty close to it, and it would be strange if the mob
didn't march on the jail itself."
"Then it would never do to let the crowd know all that's happening,
would it?" asked Pollard.
Jack, from thinking over the problems that had come up in connection
with the spies, had at last let his attention wander to the crowds.
Down at the beach hundreds were taking an afternoon dip. Other hundreds
were strolling up and down the sands. Children were building sand
castles or houses. A good many small boats were out with pleasure
parties. Yet many, both grown-ups and children, looked positively
bored. They needed excitement.
"How near this crowd came to having something to talk about," muttered
young Benson to himself, with a smile. "If that mine had gone off
last night, no one at Spruce Beach would have felt dull to-day."
Finding that the afternoon air was making him dull and inclined to gape,
Captain Jack turned back from the beach.
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