ntioning," replied Austen. "Tyner and the boys liked
it pretty well, but I didn't think you'd be interested. It was a local
affair."

"Not interested! Not worth mentioning!" exclaimed the Honourable
Hilary, outraged to discover that his son was modestly deprecating an
achievement instead of defending a crime. "Godfrey! murder ain't worth
mentioning, I presume."

"Not when it isn't successful," said Austen. "If Blodgett had succeeded,
I guess you'd have heard of it before you did."

"Do you mean to say this Blodgett tried to kill you?" demanded the
Honourable Hilary.

"Yes," said his son, "and I've never understood why he didn't. He's a
good deal better shot than I am."

The Honourable Hilary grunted, and sat down on a bucket and carefully
prepared a piece of Honey Dew. He was surprised and agitated.

"Then why are you a fugitive from justice if you were acting in
self-defence?" he inquired.

"Well, you see there were no witnesses, except a Mexican of Blodgett's,
and Blodgett runs the Pepper County machine for the railroad out there.
I'd been wanting to come East and have a look at you for some time, and
I thought I might as well come now."

"How did this--this affair start?" asked Mr. Vane.

"Blodgett was driving in some of Tyner's calves, and I caught him. I
told him what I thought of him, and he shot at me through his pocket.
That was all."

"All! You shot him, didn't you?"

"I was lucky enough to hit him first," said Austen.

Extraordinary as it may seem, the Honourable Hilary experienced a sense
of pride.

"Where did you hit him?" he asked.

It was Euphrasia who took matters in her own hands and killed the fatted
calf, and the meal to which they presently sat down was very different
from the frugal suppers Mr. Vane usually had. But he made no comment.
It is perhaps not too much to say that he would have been distinctly
disappointed had it been otherwise. There was Austen's favourite pie,
and Austen's favourite cake, all inherited from the Austens, who had
thought more of the fleshpots than people should. And the prodigal did
full justice to the occasion.

CHAPTER III. CONCERNING THE PRACTICE OF LAW

So instinctively do we hark back to the primeval man that there was a
tendency to lionize the prodigal in Ripton, which proves the finished
civilization of the East not to be so far removed from that land of
outlaws, Pepper County. Mr. Paul Pardriff, who had a guilty conscience
about the clipp