oward."

"Who else had a call to do it?" said the old man, placed, unexpectedly,
on the defensive. "Who else war an enemy of Mr. Layson's?"

Madge spoke slowly. She was not sure, at all, whom she was accusing; her
suspicions were indefinite, obscure, but they were taking form within
her mind. "Thar's one as I knows on," she slowly answered. "It's th' one
as told Joe Lorey that Mr. Frank had set th' revenuers onto him." Her
conviction strengthened as she spoke, and, as she continued, she looked
Holton firmly in the eye and spoke with emphasis. "Show me th' man as
told that lie, an' I'll show you th' scoundrel as tried to burn Queen
Bess!"

Layson liked the spirit of her warm defense of her old friend, and,
himself, knew enough about the moonshiner to make it seem quite
reasonable. He knew that Joe was a crude creature, but believed, and had
good reason to believe, that he had his code of honor which he would
abide by at all cost. It was impossible for him to feel convinced that
this would have permitted him to set fire to the stable. "Madge, I
believe you're right," said he.

Holton was nonplussed. Things were not going as he had expected and had
wished them to, at all. "Oh, shore, it war Joe Lorey," he protested. "It
couldn't 'a' been nobody else. I warns you, here an' now, Layson, that
ef you don't set th' law after him he'll be lynched before to-morrer
night."

Layson was a little angered by the man's persistence. "I'll see that
that doesn't happen," he replied, "and I'll leave no stone unturned to
find the scoundrel who really did the deed, and have him punished. But
I'm not certain that the man will prove to be Joe Lorey."

Holton, angry, baffled and astonished, left the room, with a maddening
conviction growing in his mind that things were going wrong and would
continue to go wrong. He almost regretted, now, that he had yielded to
the impulse to set fire to the stable. If Layson would not let him throw
suspicion where he had intended it should fall, then one part of his
plan would have failed utterly: he would not have put Joe Lorey, who, at
liberty, must ever be a peril to him, from his path; and, furthermore,
if they kept on with investigation, in the end they might--they
might--but he would not let himself believe that, by any possibility,
the real truth could come out. He assured himself as he stepped out into
the crowded street that he was safe, whether or not the crime was ever
fastened on Joe Lorey.