went away, raging against the indignity which threatened Helen.
At Carmody's office he waited an hour, hoping the coroner might return,
and, in despair of any help from him, set out at last for Brinkley's
office, resolute to secure the judge's interference.

The first man he met on the street stopped him with a jovial word:
"Hello, Hans! Say, you want to watch out for Abe Kitsong. He came
b'ilin' in half an hour ago, and is looking for you. Says you helped
that Dutchman and his girl (or wife, or whatever she is) to get away,
and that you've been arresting Henry, his nephew, without a warrant, and
he swears he'll swat you good and plenty, on sight."

Hanscom's voice was savage as he replied: "You tell him that I'm big
enough to be seen with the naked eye, and if he wants me right away
he'll find me at Judge Brinkley's office."

The other man also grew serious. "All the same, Hans, keep an eye out,"
he urged. "Abe is sure to make you trouble. He's started in drinking,
and when he's drunk he's poisonous as a rattler."

"All right. I'm used to rattlers--I'll hear him before he strikes. He's
a noisy brute."

The ranger could understand that Rita's father might very naturally be
thrown into a fury of protest by the news of his daughter's arrest, but
Kitsong's concern over a nephew whom he had not hitherto regarded as
worth the slightest care did not appear especially logical or singularly
important.

Brinkley was not in his office and so Hanscom went out to his house, out
on the north bend of the river in a large lawn set with young trees.

The judge, seated on his porch in his shirt-sleeves, exhibited the
placid ease of a man whose office work is done and his grass freshly
sprinkled.

"Good evening, Hanscom," he pleasantly called. "Come up and have a seat
and a smoke with the gardener."

"I have but a moment," the ranger replied, and plunged again into the
story, which served in this instance as a preface to his plea for
intervention. "You must help _me_, Judge. Miss McLaren must not go to
jail. To arrest her in this way a second time is a crime. She's a lady,
Judge, and as innocent of that shooting as a child."

"You surprise me," said Brinkley. "According to all reports she is very,
very far from being a lady."

Hanscom threw out his hands in protest. "They're all wrong, Judge. I
tell you she _is_ a lady, and young and handsome."

"Handsome and young!" The judge's eyes took on a musing expression.
"Well, we