t his side.

CHAPTER XXXVII

During this week Judge Rutherford's every hour was filled with action and
excitement. He had not a friend or acquaintance in either House whom he
did not seek out and labour with. He was to be seen in the lobby, in the
corridors, in committee-rooms, arguing and explaining, with sheafs of
papers in his hands and bundles of documents bulging out of his pockets.
He walked down the avenue holding the arm of his latest capture, his
trustworthy countenance heated by his interest and anxiety, his hat
thrust on the back of his head. "There's got to be justice done," he
would protest. "You see, justice has got to be done. There's no other way
out of it. And I'd swear there ain't a man among you who doesn't own up
that it is justice, now all this evidence has been brought together. The
country couldn't be responsible for throwing the thing over--even till
another session. Everything's in black and white and sworn to and
proved--and the papers Baird has sent in clinch the whole thing. Now just
look here--" And he would repeat his story and refer to his documents,
until even the indifferent succumbed through exhaustion, if not
conviction.

He appeared at Dupont Circle two or three times a day, always fevered
with delighted hope, always with some anecdote to relate which
prognosticated ultimate triumph. If he could not find anyone else to talk
to he seized upon Miss Burford or Uncle Matt and poured forth his news to
them. He wrote exultant letters to Jenny, the contents of which, being
given to Barnesville, travelled at once to Talbot's Cross-roads and
wakened it to exhilarated joyfulness, drawing crowds to the Post-office
and perceptibly increasing the traffic on the roads from the mountains to
that centre of civilised social intercourse.

"Tom's a-gwine to win his claim," it was said. "Judge Rutherford's
walkin' it right through for him. Tom'll be way ahead of the richest man
in Hamlin. Sheby'll be a hairest. Lordy! what a sight it'll be to see 'em
come back. Wonder whar they'll build!"

In Washington it had begun to be admitted even by the reluctant that the
fortunes of the De Willoughby claim seemed to have taken a turn. Members
of substantial position discussed it among themselves. It was a large
claim, and therefore a serious one, but it had finally presented itself
upon an apparently solid foundation.

"And it is the member from the mountain districts, and the old negro, and
the pop