You have been caught asking too many questions

You are out too late at night asking questions and are caught by one of Tyler’s citizens on his nightly patrol. You attempt to explain that you are a newspaper reporter, writing a story about the incendiaries.

The citizen patrolman quickly informs you that there have not been any fires in Tyler yet, largely because “over one hundred citizens are on patrol duty every night.”

Every stranger in town is targeted and if sufficient documentation to the persons’ identity isn’t provided, then that stranger’s life “would not be worth a straw.”¹

Suddenly, you hear shots in the distance and the streets are soon filled with citizens. You ask a patrolman what is happening and he tells you that a stranger was caught trying to set the town on fire. The individual was “shot at two or three times by the patrol, but succeeded in making his escape, not, it is to be hoped, without carrying with him some evidence of the skill of our marksmen.” The patrolman continues saying, “woe to the scoundrel who, arrested in the act, falls into their hands.”²