It's costly, but then--gracious! Wouldn't I have given
something for the doctor's hose when I was a youngster campaigning in
the Philippines in '99?"
The story of the marvellous way in which Dr. Syx defended his mill
became the sensation of the world for many days. The hose-pipe theory,
struck off on the spot by Captain Carter, seized the popular fancy,
and was generally accepted without further question. There was an
element of the ludicrous which robbed the tragedy of some of its
horror. Moreover, no one could deny that Dr. Syx was well within his
rights in defending himself by any means when so savagely attacked,
and his triumphant success, no less than the ingenuity which was
supposed to underlie it, placed him in an heroic light which he had
not hitherto enjoyed.
As to the demagogues who were responsible for the outbreak and its
terrible consequences, they slunk out of the public eye, and the
result of the battle at the mine seemed to have been a clearing up of
the atmosphere, such as a thunderstorm effects at the close of a
season of foul weather.
But now, little as men guessed it, the beginning of the end was close
at hand.
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