rain is clear and your legs steady."

Mahaffy jerked out an oath, and lifting himself off his chair, stood
erect. He snatched up his hat.

"Stuff your pistols into your pockets, and come on, Price!" he said, and
stalked toward the door.

He flitted up the street, and the judge puffed and panted in his wake.
They gained the edge of the village without speech.

"There is mystery and rascality here!" said the judge.

"What do you know, Price, and where did you hear this?" Mahaffy shot the
question back over his shoulder.

"At Pegloe's, the Belle Plain overseer had just fetched the news into
town."

Again they were silent, all their energies being absorbed by the
physical exertion they were making. The road danced before their
burning eyes, it seemed to be uncoiling itself serpentwise with hideous
undulations. Mr. Mahaffy was conscious that the judge, of whom he caught
a blurred vision now at his right side, now at his left, was laboring
painfully in the heat and dust, the breath whistling from between his
parched lips.

"You're just ripe for apoplexy, Price!" he snarled, moderating his pace.

"Go on," said the judge, with stolid resolution.

Two miles out of the village they came to a roadside spring, here they
paused for an instant. Mahaffy scooped up handfuls of the clear water
and sucked it down greedily. The judge dropped on his stomach and buried
his face in the tiny pool, gulping up great thirsty swallows. After a
long breathless instant he stood erect, with drops of moisture clinging
to his nose and eyebrows. Mahaffy was a dozen paces down the road,
hurrying forward again with relentless vigor. The judge shuffled after
him. The tracks they left in the dust crossed and re-crossed the road,
but presently the slanting lines of their advance straightened, the
judge gained and held a fixed place at Mahaffy's right, a step or so in
the rear. His oppulent fancy began to deal with the situation.

"If anything happens to the child, the man responsible for it would
better never been born--I'll pursue him with undiminished energy from
this moment forth!" he panted.

"What could happen to him, Price?" asked Mahaffy.

"God knows, poor little lad!"

"Will you shut up!" cried Mahaffy savagely.

"Solomon!"

"Why do you go building on that idea? Why should any one harm him--what
earthly purpose--"

"I tell you, Solomon, we are the pivotal point in a vast circle of
crime. This is a blow at me--this is revenge, s