They seemed to feel that they could camp in the hospital halls and
corridors, and they were an incalculable worry to the authorities. More
came on every train, and nearly all brought flowers, and jelly, and
chickens for preparing broth, and they insisted that the two latter
delicacies be fed to the patient at once. Meredith was possessed by an
unaccountable responsibility for them all, and invited a great many to
stay at his own house. They were still in ignorance of the truth about the
Cross-Roads, and some of them spent the day (it was Sunday) in planning an
assault upon the Rouen jail for the purpose of lynching Slattery in case
Harkless's condition did not improve at once. Those who had heard his
statement kept close mouths until the story appeared in full in the Rouen
papers on Monday morning; but by that time every member of the Cross-Roads
White-Caps was lodged in the Rouen jail with Slattery. Homer and a heavily
armed posse rode over to the muddy corners on Sunday night, and the
sheriff discovered that he might have taken the Skilletts and Johnsons
single-handed and unarmed. Their nerve was gone; they were shaken and
afraid; and, to employ a figure somewhat inappropriate to their sullen,
glad surrender, they fell upon his neck in their relief at finding the law
touching them. They had no wish to hear "John Brown's Body" again.
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