But they didn't get to begin that morning. As they were getting ready a sheriff's cruiser began to roll by. Suddenly a man in a deputy's uniform climbed out the passenger side holding something. He hurled it towards the first row of tents as the car sped away. Deputy Fife, sensing something, had positioned himself between the car and the tents. He caught the bundle of dynamite in the air, ran towards the ledges and threw it over. The resulting explosion knocked him down but fortunately he was protected from the worst of it and only got some bruises. All three buses however, and two cruisers parked along the two scenery pulloffs did not fare so well. It took some time to put out the fires. The phony cruiser was found abandoned a short distance away, the phony deputys' uniforms on the ground beside it. But one of them was stained with blood. The three rounds one of the deputies had managed to get off at the fleeing vehicle had found flesh. The sheriff was mad as hell! He wanted Fife to take some time off, but he assured him he could carry on his duties. Victor Dinsmore assured everyone none of the snowmobilers had been involved with the incident, but later that evening he got a call from Harold West. He had been at Henry Jones' house. His cousin was there with his RV. His wife had come out of it with a plastic bag full of bloody towels which she had tried to conceal. "Victor," Harold, insited, "I can't be a party to violence. We can't throw dynamite at people! We've got to report this! If you don't I will. But you're our spokesman to the public."
"All right!" Victor agreed, "All right! I'll pass your suspicions on." He called the sheriff who fifteen minutes later with six other deputies, surrounded the Jones' home. In the RV they found the man very near to death. The doctor from the resort arrived and managed to patch him together enough so that the ambulence could take him to Clifton. The Jones' were all taken into custody, but the road to the resort was blocked. Only those they knew were allowed near it, or those The Spiritists could vouch for. Nobody was ever going to get that close again if the sheriff could prevent it. When the news came that day that both the presidential candidates would be arriving the next day to be arrested the sheriff just about had fits!
"Well," he said, "it will mean more secret service people and keep the detention center secure!" But he was kind of glad in a way. He had always been an admirer of Maryjane, even when she'd just had her talk show. He would enjoy meeting her AND her distinguished opponant. That they were taking the time to be arrested and spend two weeks in detention this close to the election fascinated him. One of the deputies came up.
"Sheriff," he warned, "I just got done talking with the weather guy. He says things are building up for a major fall snowstorm. It may be one of the worst we've ever seen! Extremely low temperatures for this time of year, and lots and lots of snow. And he says it's not going to go away. It looks like we're going to get an early bitter winter."
"Do The Spiritists know?" the sheriff asked.
"Their weatherman first brought it to our attention," the deputy answered.
"Well, these people have winter gear," the sheriff remarked, "and good tents. They seem to know what they're doing." The sheriff would've liked very much to see his wife, but no index card had appeared. So he knew she wasn't available. When he got to his room he turned on the t.v. and got another surprise.
"It's official!" the reporter was saying. "The White House has confirmed it! Over her husband's bitter objections The First Lady is coming to Vermont to take part in the demonstrations to get back The Spiritist's land! She says the best way to make sure that the ladies in this detention center aren't being mistreated is to join them and she's quite sure there won't be a security risk among them. The President was asked why didn't he stop her, and he said "What am I gonna do, chain her to the bed? Aunt May introduced us and said here was a woman I could never tame, just what I needed. Auntie was always right!"
"Oh, brother!" the sheriff moaned. "They've gotta put an end to this.......they've GOT to!"

Page 45