They were only waiting.
At five o'clock he was still alive--just that, Smith came out to say.
Meredith sent his driver with a telegram to Helen which would give
Plattville the news that Harkless was found and was not yet gone from
them. Homer took the cab and left for the station; there was a train, and
there were things for him to do in Carlow. At noon Meredith sent a second
telegram to Helen, as barren of detail as the first: he was alive--was a
little improved. This telegram did not reach her, for she was on the way
to Rouen, and half of the population of Carlow--at least, so it appeared
to the unhappy conductor of the accommodation--was with her.
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. They
wanted to get inside of a strong jail, and to throw themselves on the
mercy of the court as soon as possible. And those whom Harkless had not
recognized delayed not to give themselves up; they did not desire to
remain in Six-Cross-Roads. Bob Skillett, Force Johnson, and one or two
others needed the care of a physician badly, and one man was suffering
from a severely wrenched back. Homer had a train stopped at a crossing, so
that his prisoners need not be taken through Plattville, and he brought
them all safely to Rouen. Had there chanced any one to ride through the
deserted Cross-Roads the next morning, passing the trampled fields and the
charred ruins of the two shanties to the east, and listening to the
lamentations of the women and children, he would have declared that at
last the old score had been paid, and that Six-Cross-Roads was wiped out.