ice of the judge, a privilege for which he was indebted to the
influence of Senator Wright, I understood. He was a gay Lothario,
always boasting of his love affairs, and I had little to do with him.

One day in May near the end of my two years in Cobleskill Judge
Westbrook gave me two writs to serve on settlers in the neighborhood of
Baldwin Heights for non-payment of rent. He told me what I knew, that
there was bitter feeling against the patroons in that vicinity and that
I might encounter opposition to the service of the writs. If so I was
not to press the matter, but bring them back and he would give them to
the sheriff.

"I do not insist on your taking this task upon you," he added. "I want a
man of tact to go and talk with these people and get their point of
view. If you don't care to undertake it I'll send another man."

"I think that I would enjoy the task," I said in ignorance of that
hornet's nest back in the hills.

"Take Purvis with you," he said. "He can take care of the horses, and as
those back-country folk are a little lawless it will be just as well to
have a witness with you. They tell me that Purvis is a man of nerve and
vigor."

Thus very deftly and without alarming me he had given me a notion of the
delicate nature of my task. He had great faith in me those days. Well, I
had had remarkably good luck with every matter he had put into my
hands. He used to say that I would make a diplomat and playfully called
me "Lord Chesterfield"--perhaps because I had unconsciously acquired a
dignity and courtesy of manner beyond my years a little.

"Mr. Purvis" had been busy building up a conversational reputation for
frightfulness in the gardens. He was held in awe by a number of the
simple-minded men with whom he worked. For him life had grown very
pleasant again--a sweet, uninterrupted dream of physical power and
fleeing enemies. I tremble to think what might have happened if his
strength and courage had equaled his ambition. I smiled when the judge
spoke of his nerve and vigor. Still I was glad of his company, for I
enjoyed Purvis.

I had drafted my letters for the day and was about to close my desk and
start on my journey when Louis Latour came in and announced that he had
brought the writs from the judge and was going with me.

"You will need a sheriff's deputy anyhow, and I have been appointed for
just this kind of work," he assured me.

"I don't object to your going but you must remember that I am