leading his own case. There was a dread of her condemnation in his
eyes which she could not mistake. But her heart was too sore for the
Perkins family to feel any compunction for him.

"I don't understand law I know," she said sadly. "But I can't
understand how your father's son could see that poor irresponsible
creature sent to jail for the sake of a big rich company. His wife's
heart is broken, that's all." She was losing her self-control once
more, and she hastily bade him good-evening, and before Roderick could
speak again she was gone.

The young man walked swiftly homeward; the blackness of the darkening
pine forest was nothing to the gloom of his soul. He spent long hours
of the night and many of the next day striving to state the case in a
way that would justify himself in the girl's eyes. In his extremity he
went to Lawyer Ed for comfort.

"What could I do?" he asked. "What would you have done in that case?"

Lawyer Ed scratched his head. "I really don't know what a fellow's to
do now, Rod, that's the truth, when he's doing business for a skinflint
like Sandy Graham. You just have to do as he wants or jump the job,
that's a fact."

But Roderick did not need to be told that his chief would have jumped
any job no matter how big, rather than hurt a poor weakling like Billy
Perkins.

So those were dark days for Roderick in spite of all the brilliant
prospects opening ahead of him. He could not tell which was harder to
bear, his father's perfect faith in him, despite all evidence to the
contrary, or the girl's look of reproach, despite all his attempts to
set himself right in her eyes. He was learning, too, that not till he
had lost her good opinion did he realise that he wanted it more than
anything else in the world.

But there were compensations. When he finished his business he
received a letter of congratulation from Mr. Kent, and a commission to
do some important work for him. He found some solace, too, in the
bright approving eyes of Leslie Graham. Her perfect confidence in him
furnished a little balm to his wounded feelings. Certainly she was not
so exacting, for she cared not at all about the Perkinses and all the
other troublesome folk on the Jericho Road.

CHAPTER XI

"THE LANDSKIP DARKEN'D"

Roderick's work allowed him little chance for brooding over his
worries, for Lawyer Ed left more and more to him as the days went on.
Not that he did any less, but the temperance ca