H. may win. If he does not, we win all the same, for Jobbins is in
chains. Verdict, please."
Y was silent, and smoked thoughtfully. For five minutes no one spoke, and
the president occupied the time in arranging some papers.
"Let him stand his chance," said Y, at last. In spite of the apparent
informality of the meetings of the three, there was an unchangeable rule
in their proceedings. Whenever a question arose, the member who first
objected to the proposition argued the case briefly, or at length, with
the proposer, and the third gave the verdict, against which there was no
appeal.
These three strong men possessed between them an enormous power. It rarely
happened that they could all meet together and settle upon their course of
action by word of month, but constant correspondence and the use of an
extensive set of telegraphic codes kept them in unbroken communication. No
oaths or ceremonies bound them together, for they belonged to a small
community of men which has existed from the earliest days of American
independence, and which took its rise before that period.
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