yin' to get me out of the beastly
drunken scrape I'd been fool enough to get into, this wouldn't have
happened. You know it wouldn't, Judge. It's all my fault, and I've got
to get Emerson out of it."

"That's all right, Nick. Your loyalty to Emerson does you great
credit. Much more than your judgment does. But if you'll just wait a
week or two the grand jury will pronounce on his case, and they're
bound to let the bottom out of the whole thing. They'll never find a
true bill against him, with no evidence to go on and no proof even
that Will Whittaker is dead. Then Emerson will come out a vindicated
man and they will have to let him alone after that. His interests will
not suffer now by his being detained a few days, and he will gain in
the respect of the community by submitting quietly. Take my advice,
Nick, and keep still, and let matters follow their legal course for
the next week or two."

"A week or two, Judge! And let Emerson stay in jail all that time?
When he's no more right to be there than you or me! Sure, now, Judge!
and what do you-all take me for, anyway?"

"For a sensible man, Nick, who will see the reason in what I have been
saying and will take my advice in the matter."

Nick leaned his face on his hand and gloomed across the desk at the
big judge, who sat calm and judicial on the other side. Judge Harlin
pleased himself much by believing that he could handle Nick Ellhorn
better than any other man in the county, except Emerson Mead, and he
liked to have the opportunity to try his hand, just as he liked to
drive a nervous, mettlesome, erratic horse. He could drive the horse,
but he could not manage Nick Ellhorn. The tall Texan had learned not
to batter words against the judge's determination, which was as big
and bulky as his figure. He simply gave tacit acquiescence, and then
went away and did as he pleased. If his scheme succeeded he adroitly
flattered the judge by giving him the credit; if it failed he
professed penitence and said how much better it would have been to
follow the judge's advice. He saw that Judge Harlin had decided to
allow Emerson Mead to stay in jail until the grand jury should meet,
so he presently said:

"Oh, I reckon you-all are right about it, Judge, but it's damn hard on
Emerson. But if it's the only way to keep this blamed town from
fallin' to and gettin' rid of itself I reckon we'll have to let him
stand it." He got up and walked up and down the room for a few minutes
and