rope in his hand sorter keerless lak
it might help. Ropes is powerful influential. An' the sight of tar an'
feathers meks a mighty strong argument, too, Ise heared tell."

"Jeff," said the judge, "I'm astonished that you'd even suggest sech a
thing! Mob law is worse even than no law at all. Besides," he added--and
now there was a small twinkle in his eye to offset to a degree the
severity in his tones--"besides, the feller that was bein' called on by
the committee might decline to take the hint and then purty soon you
might have another self-made martyr on your hands. But ef he ran away on
his own hook now--ef something came up that made him go of his own
accord and go fast and cut a sort of a cheap figure in the eyes of his
deluded followers whilst he was goin'--that'd be a different thing
altogether. Start a crowd of folks, white or black or brown, to laughin'
at a feller and they'll quit believin' in him. Worshipin' a false god
and laughin' at him at the same time never has been successfully done
yit."

He sucked his pipe. "Jeff," he resumed, "what do you know, ef anything,
about the past career and movements of this here J. Talbott Et Cetery?"

Jeff knew a good deal--at second hand. Didn't the object of his deepest
aversions persist in almost nightly calls upon the object of his
deepest affections? Paying such calls, didn't the enemy spend
hours--hours upon hours doubtless--pouring into Ophelia's ear accounts
of his recent triumphs as an uplifter in other towns and other states?
Didn't the fascinated and flattered Ophelia in turn recount these tales
to one whose opportunities for traveling and seeing the great world had
been more circumscribed? Had not Jeff writhed in jealous misery the
while he heard the annals of a rival's successes? So Jeff made prompt
answer.

"Yas, suh, I suttinly does. Ise heared a right smart 'bout dis yere
Duvall's past life frum--frum somebody. 'Cordin' to the way he norrates
it, he wuz in Nashville, Tennessee 'fore he come yere; an' 'fore dat in
Mobile, Alabama; an' 'fore dat in Little Rock, Arkansaw. Seem lak w'en
he ain't organizin' or speechifyin' he ain't got nothin' better to do
den run round amongst young cullid gals braggin' 'bout the places he's
been an' the things he done whilst in 'em."

Jeff spoke with an enhanced bitterness.

"I see. Then I take it ef he spends so much time in seekin' out female
society that he's not a married man?"

"So he say--so he say! But, Jedge P