umbs. "I'm through fighting. I'm done. Besides,
what's the use? There's nothing more to fight."

"Now, Judge," Joe said, as he came in briskly, "we'll go over the list
of that unencumbered property, if you will."

This unencumbered property consisted of Beaver Beach and those other
belongings of the Judge which he had not dared to mortgage. Joe had
somehow explained their nature to Ariel, and these with the Tocsin she
had elected to accept in restitution.

"You told me once that I ought to look after my own property, and now I
will. Don't you see?" she cried to Joe, eagerly. "It's my work!" She
resolutely set aside every other proposition; and this was the quality
of mercy which Martin Pike found that night.

There was a great crowd to hear Joe's summing-up at the trial, and
those who succeeded in getting into the court-room declared that it was
worth the struggle. He did not orate, he did not "thunder at the
jury," nor did he slyly flatter them; he did not overdo the
confidential, nor seem so secure of understanding beforehand what their
verdict would be that they felt an instinctive desire to fool him. He
talked colloquially but clearly, without appeal to the pathetic and
without garnitures, not mentioning sunsets, birds, oceans, homes, the
glorious old State, or the happiness of liberty; but he made everybody
in the room quite sure that Happy Fear had fired the shot which killed
Cory to save his own life. And that, as Mr. Bradbury remarked to the
Colonel, was "what Joe was THERE for!"

Ariel's escort was increased to four that day: Mr. Ladew sat beside
her, and there were times when Joe kept his mind entirely to the work
in hand only by an effort, but he always succeeded. The sight of the
pale and worshipping face of Happy Fear from the corner of his eye was
enough to insure that. And people who could not get near the doors,
asking those who could, "What's he doin' now?" were answered by
variations of the one formula, "Oh, jest walkin' away with it!"

Once the court-room was disturbed and set in an uproar which even the
Judge's customary threat failed to subdue. Joe had been talking very
rapidly, and having turned the point he was making with perfect
dexterity, the jury listening eagerly, stopped for a moment to take a
swallow of water. A voice rose over the low hum of the crowd in a
delirious chuckle: "Why don't somebody 'HEAD HIM OFF!'" The room
instantly rocked with laughter, under cover of