TELLS HOW THE CONSTABLES ENJOYED THEMSELVES.
CAESAR--"Let me have men about me that are fat-- Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights."
The five constables that Mr. Mercier sent down to Megantic put up in thevillage hotel.
Within an hour Donald had received the following note:--
"Dear Donald,--Action at last. Five men from Quebec after you. Keep awayfrom Marsden for a day or so. I don't think there is much to fear.They would not know you, I believe, if they met you, and they are sofrightened by the stories they have heard about you, that I don'tbelieve they would dare to arrest you, even if they found you. However,as well be on the safe side. Go into the woods a little bit"
The people soon knew that an attempt was to be made to arrest Donald.The young men gathered in the hotel round the constables, and toldblood-curdling stories of his dare-devilism in the North-West. Theconstables were fat, phlegmatic, and anything but heroic. What they hadbeen accustomed to was an unexciting and steady beat in the drowsy oldcity of Quebec, and small but unfailingly regular drinks of whiskeyblanc. This duty was new. Worst of all, it was perilous. ThisMorrison--he might shoot at sight. True, they were armed with rifles andrevolvers; but they had heard that he was a dead shot. Perhaps hemight shoot first. That would, to say the least, be awkward, perhapsdangerous, perhaps even fatal. No, they had not much stomach for thework, and the people, perceiving this, encouraged their fears. In a veryshort time Donald became a combination of Italian brigand, Dick Turpin,and Wild West Cowboy, as these latter are depicted in the dime stories.
Whenever, therefore, the officers took their walks abroad, they steppedvery gingerly as they approached the village of Marsden. It neveroccurred to them to enter Donald's home. They might have found himhalf-a-dozen times a day. They never once crossed the threshold of thewoods.
Did not this terrible character know every tangled path, and might henot open fire upon them without being seen?
The country roads are really white lines through the green of the woods.
One morning the constables left the hotel, primed with a little whiskey.They took the road to Marsden. The woods skirted the narrow way oneither side. The summer was now well advanced, and the foliage was sothick as to form an impenetrable lacery.
"We have been here a month now," said the officer in charge, in French,"and we have accomplished nothing. I shall ask to be relieved at once.The people will not help us. How could we ever find a man in thesewoods? He might be here this moment," pointing to the trees at hisright, "yet what chance would we have of taking him?"
With one accord, the four subordinates answered "None."
"Suppose he were here," and the officer halted on his step, how--What isthat? Did you hear anything?"
"Yes," said one of the constables timorously, "I heard a noise in thebrushwood."
"Suppose it were Morrison?"
And they looked at each other apprehensively.
"We will return," said the officer. "It is probably a bear. If I thoughtit were Morrison, I would enter the wood," he said valorously. When theywere gone, a brown face peeped out. It was Donald. "They're scared," hesaid to himself, laughing. "Not much danger from them. I don't believethey would know me. I'll test it."
He laid down his rifle at the foot of a tree, looked to his pistols, andwalked rapidly in the direction the constables had taken. Overtakingthem, he pushed his way through the brushwood, in advance of them, andthen, at a bend in the road which hid him from view, he leaped out uponthe road, turned, and met the party. He walked straight up to them,looked them in the eye, and passed on. They did not know him; or, if, aswas alleged against them afterwards, they knew him, they were afraid toarrest him. The statement that Donald carried his audacity so far as toenter the hotel, and drink with them, he himself laughingly denied tohis friends.
The opposition papers jeered at the failure of the expedition. Ridiculeis the most powerful of weapons. Man is not half so humorous as the dogor the elephant. With the latter it is an instinct. With the former itis an acquirement. Still, the perception of humor is fairly general.Don't argue with your opponent, Kill him with ridicule. Laughter isdeadly. When the people laugh at a Government it can put its sparecollar and shirt in its red handkerchief, and retire to the privacy ofits family. Mr. Mercier is sensitive to ridicule.
Mr. Mercier withdrew that expedition, and offered $3,000 reward for thecapture of Morrison!