a light in the kitchen of Isom's house, but the door was
closed; he knocked, and somebody called to him to enter. He opened the
door and saw Isom lying there, still and bloody, money--gold money--all
over him, and a man standing there beside him. There was nobody else in
the room.

"Shades of mercy!" she gasped. "Who was that man?"

Sol looked at her pityingly. He put his hand to his forehead as if it
gave him pain to speak.

"It was your Joe," said he.

She sighed, greatly lightened and relieved.

"Oh, then Joe he told you how it happened?" said she.

"Ma'am," said Sol impressively, "he said they was alone in the kitchen
when it happened; he said him and Isom had some words, and Isom he
reached up to pull down the gun, and the hammer caught, and it went off
and shot him. That's what Joe told me, ma'am."

"Well, Sol Greening, you talk like you didn't believe him!" she scorned.
"If Joe said that, it's so."

"I hope to God it is!" said Sol, drawing a great breath.

If Sol had looked for tears, his eyes were cheated; if he had listened
for screams, wailings, and moanings, his ears were disappointed. Sarah
Newbolt stood straight and haughtily scornful in her kitchen door, her
dark eyes bright between their snapping lids.

"Where's Joe?" she asked sternly.

"He's over there," said Sol, feeling that he had made a noise like a
peanut-bag which one inflates and smashes in the palm in the expectation
of startling the world.

"Have they took him up?"

"Well, you see, Bill Frost's kind of keepin' his eye on him till the
inquest," explained Sol.

"Yes, and I could name the man that put him up to it," said she.

"Well, circumstantial evidence--" began Sol.

"Oh, circumstance your granny!" she stopped him pettishly.

Mrs. Newbolt emptied her pan among the scrambling fowls by turning it
suddenly upside down. That done, she reached behind her and put it on
the table. Her face had grown hard and severe, and her eyes were
fierce.

"Wouldn't believe my boy!" said she bitterly. "Are you going over that
way now?"

"Guess I'll be ridin' along over."

"Well, you tell Joe that I'll be there as quick as shank's horses can
carry me," she said, turning away from the door, leaving Sol to gather
what pleasure he was able out of the situation.

She lost no time in primping and preparing, but was on the road before
Sol had gone a quarter of a mile.

Mrs. Newbolt cut across fields, arriving at the Chase farm almost as
so