In this crowd were some of the prominent men of the town, young and old; they left their places of business every half hour or so and wandered aimlessly to the now historic spot, as if drawn by a magnet.

Just why they congregated there no one could explain and no one attempted to do so.

Presumably it was because the whole town centred its mind on one of two places--the spot where Rosalie was seized or the home of Anderson Crow.

When they were not at Mrs.Luce's gate they were tramping through Anderson's front yard and into his house.
"Say," said "Blootch" so loudly that the crowd felt like remonstrating with him, "what's the use of all this ?" No one responded.

No one was equal to it on such short notice.
"We've got to do something besides stand around and whisper," he said.
"We've got to find Rosalie Gray." "But good gosh!" ejaculated Isaac Porter, "they've got purty nigh a day's start of us." "Well, that don't matter.