The three spokesmen looked at one another a little doubtfully.

   "We-e-ll," said Werner Stauffacher at last, "as a matter of fact, he
didn't actually

    say

   very much. It was more what he

    did

   ,
if you understand me, than what he said."

   "I should describe His Excellency the Governor," said Walter Fürst, "as
a man who has got a way with him—a man who has got all sorts of
arguments at his finger-tips."

   At the mention of finger-tips, Arnold of Melchthal uttered a sharp
howl.

   "In short," continued Walter, "after a few minutes' very interesting
conversation he made us see that it really wouldn't do, and that we
must go on paying the taxes as before."

   There was a dead silence for several minutes, while everybody looked at
everybody else in dismay.

   The silence was broken by Arnold of Sewa. Arnold of Sewa had been
disappointed at not being chosen as one of the three spokesmen, and he
thought that if he had been so chosen all this trouble would not have
occurred.

   "The fact is," he said bitterly, "that you three have failed to do what
you were sent to do. I mention no names—far from it—but I don't mind
saying that there are some people in this town who would have given a
better account of themselves. What you want in little matters of this
sort is, if I may say so, tact. Tact; that's what you want. Of course,
if you

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