fied."

"Are they satisfied with a reign of terror?" Weighborne was treading the
thin ice of local conditions. I fancied he was trying to force Garvin
into committing himself, but it was a dangerous experiment.

"What's anybody terrified about?" inquired the Judge with entire
blindness.

Weighborne, totally checkmated by this childlike query, changed ground
and laughed.

"Oh, we hear a good deal of talk down below," he explained, "about the
shot from the laurel and all that sort of thing."

Judge Garvin laughed heartily.

"Oh, pshaw!" he exclaimed in high good-humor. "There ain't nothin' in
all that. Them newspapers down below's jest obliged to have somethin' to
talk about. We're all neighbors up here. We're simple sort of folks.
Sometimes we has our little arguments, but--" the lips still smiled
genially; he paused and his voice was like a benediction as he went
on--"but I hope we ain't got in no such serious fix that we needs
regulatin' from outside. They do say that most of them fellers that got
killed needed killin' pretty bad. I've lost two brothers, but I ain't
kickin'."

Weighborne saw that a withdrawal from debate would be advisable, but
that this withdrawal must not seem precipitate.

"However, as a matter of argument," he suggested, "is any man competent
to decide that his enemy needs killing?"

The judge went into his trousers-pocket and produced a twist of tobacco
into which he bit generously before replying.

"Well," he drawled, "your enemy's the man that's goin' to decide whether
you need killin'. Why don't it work both ways?"

Weighborne made no reply. One cannot argue with a set opinion. The
loungers were saying nothing, but their eyes dwelt admiringly on their
spokesman. At last Garvin smilingly inquired:

"You'd have to condemn rights-of-way, I reckon?"

"Only where we couldn't make individual trades," answered my companion.

"That procedure ain't apt to be no ways popular," reflected Judge
Garvin.

"You gentlemen understand I ain't criticisin'," he assured us when we
made no reply. "If condemnation suits are brought in my co'te I ain't
got no personal interests to serve. I'm jest namin' it to you, because
you asked about the people's notions, that's all."

"At least," fenced Weighborne, "you yourself see the advantages of
development?"

It was putting a question which was almost a challenge to this leader of
the old, lawless order whose baronial power we threatened. He answered