In forming this committee the wise men of the town ignored Mr.Peabody, and he might have been left off completely had he not stepped in and appointed himself chairman.
The five good men and true descended upon the marshal late in the afternoon, half fearful of the result, but resolute.

They found him slowly emerging from his spell of lassitude.

He greeted them with a solemn nod of the head.

Since early morning he had been conscious of a long stream of sympathisers passing through the house, but it was not until now that he felt equal to the task of recognising any of them.
His son Roscoe had just finished telling him the story of the abduction.
Roscoe's awestruck tones and reddened eyes carried great weight with them, and for the tenth time that day he had his sisters in tears.

With each succeeding repetition the details grew until at last there was but little of the original event remaining, a fact which his own family properly overlooked.
"Gentlemen," said Anderson, as if suddenly coming from a trance, "this wasn't the work of Tinkletown desperadoes." Whereupon the committee felt mightily relieved.