Most men did not clamor to be placed upon this committee,
while the very ones who least desired the honor were the ones whose
services were most required. The chaplain was not well enough acquainted
with the faces and places of the townspeople to know whom to admit and
whom to turn away. In like condition were the several other worthy
gentlemen who would have asked nothing better than to so serve. To fill
the coveted place, Mrs. McFee would have risked her chance of salvation,
and did, one night, when a certain trio passed in under her guns and
muddled things considerably before their identity was discovered.
Thereafter only the fit were chosen, and very ungracefully did they
respond.
On this particular night Prince was at the door. Pressure had been
brought to bear, and he had not yet recovered from amaze at his having
consented to undertake a task which bid fair to lose him half his
friends, merely for the sake of pleasing the other half. Three or four
of the men he had refused were men whom he had known on creek and
trail,--good comrades, but not exactly eligible for so select an affair.
He was canvassing the expediency of resigning the post there and then,
when a woman tripped in under the light.
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