hey also
remember certain of Kilbride's words: "There'll be quite a lot of things
crop up in our minds that we'll be wondering we never thought of before."

The justice cleared his throat. "Sergeant" came his guttural, booming
bass, "suppose!--suppose!" he reiterated suavely "on this occasion
we--er--temper justice with mercy--ha! ha!" His deep hollow laugh jarred
on their nerves most unpleasantly. "I need a man at my place just now,"
he went on, "to buck wood and do a little odd choring around. Times are
rather hard just now, as this poor fellow says. If you insist--er--why,
of course I've no other option but to send him down . . . you understand?
I would not presume to dictate to you your duty. On the other hand . . .
if you are not specially anxious to press a charge of vagrancy against
this man I--er--am willing to give him a chance to obtain this work--that
he insists he is so anxious to find."

Slavin's face cleared and he emitted a weary sigh of relief. "As you
will, yeh're Worship," he said. "T'will be helpin' me out, tu . . . yeh
undhershtand?" His meaning stare drew a comprehensive nod from Gully.
"I have not a man tu shpare for escort just now."

He turned to the hobo. "Fwhat say yu', me man?" was his curt ultimatum,
"Fwhat say yu'--tu th' kindniss av his Worship? Will yeh go wurrk for
him? . . . Or be charged wid vagrancy?"

The offer was accepted with alacrity. In the hobo's one uninjured optic
shone a momentary gleam of intelligence, as he continued to stare at
Gully, like a dog at its master. The gleam was reflected in a pair of
shadowy, deep-set eyes, unblinking as an owl's.

Gully arose and looked at Lee. "All right then! you can hitch up my
team, Nick!" he said, and that rotund worthy waddled away on his mission.
"Come on, my man" he continued to the hobo, "we'll go round to the
stable." He turned to Slavin and Yorke, shedding his magisterial
deportment. "Well, good-bye, you fellows!" he said, with careless
bonhomie. He lowered his voice in an aside to Slavin. "Sergeant, I
trust I shall see, or hear from you again shortly. I would like to hear
the result of the inquest and--er--how you are progressing with the case."

A few minutes later they heard the silvery jingle of his cutter's bells
gradually dying away in the distance. Slavin aroused himself from a
scowling, brooding reverie. "G----d d----n!" he spat out to Yorke, from
between clenched teeth, "ther' goes another forlor