t into the hall.

"Order in the court!" intoned the Justice yet again. There was a rush
toward the door. "There now, go back, men," said Hod Brooks, raising a
hand. "There's not going to be any fight. Let us two alone--we want to
talk, that's all."

Don Lane looked steadily at the face of Justice Blackman. Aurora Lane
stared ahead, still icy pale, her hand clasped in that of Miss Julia's.
She felt, rather than saw, the gazes of all these others boring into her
very soul. Here were her enemies--here in what had been her home. It
seemed an hour to her before at length those standing about the door
shuffled apart to allow the two forensic enemies to reenter, though
really it had not been above ten minutes. Neither man bore any traces of
personal combat. The face of Judge Henderson was a shade
triumphant--strangely enough, since now he was to admit his own defeat.

* * * * *

"I tell you, I heard the whole business," said old Silas later on to his
crony, who owned to a certain defect in one ear in hot weather such as
this. "I heard the whole business. There wasn't no fight at all--not
that neither of them seemed a bit a-scared. Hod, he raises a hand, and
that made the Judge slow down.

"'It's what you might expect, Judge,' says Hod, for appearing in a
measly little justice court case.' He's got a mighty nasty way of
smiling, Hod has. But scared? No. Not none.

"'I'll fight this case as long as you like,' says the Judge, 'and I'll
win it, too.'

"'Maybe, maybe, Judge,' says Hod. 'But they's more ways than one of
skinning a cat. Suppose you do win it, what've you won? It's all plumb
wrong anyhow, and it orto be stopped. These people all orto go on home.'

"'So you want to try the case here, huh?' says the Judge; and says Hod:

"'That's just what I do. I mean I don't want to try it none at all. I've
got various reasons, beside, why I don't want to try this case, or have
it tried. Are you a good guesser?' I didn't know what he meant by that.

"'What're you getting at?' says the Judge. 'I know you've got something
hid. There's a sleeper in here somewheres.'

"'Well, let it stay hid,' says Hod. 'But one thing is sure, you ain't
hiding it none that you're out for Senator?'

"'Why should I? I'll win it, too,' says the Judge.

"'Maybe, maybe,' says Hod. 'All I was going to say was, maybe you'd like
to have me help you, say left-handed, thataway? Even left-handed help is
some good.'

"'