last.

"I have a theory, Solomon, that I shall be handsomely supported by my
new friends. They'll snatch at the opportunity."

"I see 'em snatching, Mr. Price," said Mahaffy grimly.

"That's right--go on and plant doubt in my heart if you can! You're as
hopeless as the grave side!" cried the judge, a spasm of rage shaking
him.

"The thing for us to do--you and I, Price--is to clear out of here,"
said Mahaffy.

"But what of the boy?"

"Leave him with his friends."

"How do you know Miss Malroy would be willing to assume his care? It's
scandalous the way you leap at conclusions. No, Solomon, no--I won't
shirk a single irksome responsibility," and the judge's voice shook with
suppressed emotion. Mahaffy laughed. "There you go again, Solomon, with
that indecent mirth of yours! Friendship aside, you grow more offensive
every day." The judge paused and then resumed. "I understand there's a
federal judgeship vacant here. The president--" Mr. Mahaffy gave him
a furtive leer. "I tell you General Jackson was my friend--we were
brothers, sir--I stood at his side on the glorious blood-wet field of
New Orleans! You don't believe me--"

"Price, you've made more demands on my stock of credulity than any man
I've ever known!"

The judge became somber-faced.

"Unparalleled misfortune overtook me--I stepped aside, but the world
never waits; I was a cog discarded from the mechanism of society--" He
was so pleased with the metaphor that he repeated it.

"Look here, Price, you talk as though you were a modern job; what's the
matter anyhow?--have you got boils?"

The judge froze into stony silence. Well, Mahaffy could sneer--he would
show him! This was the last ditch and he proposed to descend into it,
it was something to be able to demand the final word of fate--but
he instantly recalled that he had been playing at hide-and-seek with
inevitable consequences for something like a quarter of a century; it
had been a triumph merely to exist. Mahaffy having eased his conscience,
rolled over and promptly went to sleep. Flat on his back, the judge
stared up at the wide blue arch of the heavens and rehearsed those
promises which in the last twenty years he had made and broken times
without number. He planned no sweeping reforms, his system of morality
being little more than a series of graceful compromises with himself.
He must not get hopelessly in debt; he must not get helplessly drunk.
Dealing candidly with his own soul in the si