the law get at me. She's going
to be mine some day, in the right way. I'm not going behind your back to
say it; I'm announcing it to all and sundry. I never did a thing to her
that couldn't have been seen by all the world, and I never said a thing
to her that couldn't be heard by all the world; but I hope she'll never
go back to you. You've made a sewer for her to live in, not a home. As
I said, I ought to kill you, but that would play your game, so I won't,
not now. But I tell you this, Mazarine: if I ever meet you again--and
I'm sure to do so--and you don't get off the road I'm travelling on, or
the side-walk I'm walking on, when I meet you or when I pass you, I'll
let you have what'll send you to hell, before you can wink twice.

"As for Louise--as for her: I don't know where she is, but I'll find
her. One thing is sure: if I see her, I'll tell her never to go back to
you; and she won't. You've drunk at the waters of Canaan for the last
time. For a Christian you're pretty filthy. Go and wash in the pool of
Siloam and be clean--damn you, Mazarine!"

With that he turned, almost unheeding the hands thrust out to grip
his, the voices murmuring approval. In a moment he had swung his horses
round. He did not go beyond ten yards, however, before someone, running
beside his wagon, whispered up to him: "She's out at Nolan Doyle's
ranch. She went with the Young Doctor and Patsy Kernaghan."

Behind, in the street, a young boy came running through the crowd and
shouting: "I know where they are! I know where they are!" He stopped
before Mazarine. "Gimme half a dollar, and I'll tell you where your
horses are. Gimme half a dollar. Gimme half a dollar, and I'll tell
you."

An instant later, with the half-dollar in his hand, he said: "They're up
to the shed of the Meetin' House."

"Yes, go along up to the Meetin' House, Mr. Mazarine," said one of
the miscreants who had driven the horses there. "They're holding a
post-mortem on you at the prayer meetin'. They say you're dead in
trespasses and sins. Get along, Joel."

The crowd started to follow him to the shed where his horses were, but
after a moment he turned on them and said:

"Ain't you heerd and seen enough? Ain't there no law to protect a man?"

A hoe was leaning against a fence. He saw it, and with sudden fury,
seizing it, swung it round his head as if to throw it into the crowd.
At that moment a stalwart constable ran forward, raised a hand towards
Mazarine, and then