Chapter 11 THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE

T was May 14, 1856. I chanced to be standing at the northwest corner of Washington and Montgomery Streets, watching the world go by. It was a queer world: very much mixed, not a little fantastic in manner and costume; just the kind of world to delight a boy, and no doubt I was delighted.

"Bang!" It was a pistol-shot, and very near me-not thirty