set her wild and she had to go. When he was tired
of her, he left her in a place he thought she'd be too proud to come
back from. She was proud, but he's broken her pride, and she crawled
back to us. The prettiest girl in the town, she was, and you all knew
that, and my sister and more to me----" he broke off abruptly, and
laughed a dry little laugh that echoed strangely in the silent room. His
voice sounded dry and hard as he went on.

"He broke Maggie's life, but what's that to you, that give him a chance
at your women, knowing well what he is, and leave them to take care of
themselves with him, your own women that are yours to take care of,
daughters and wives? It's nothing to you, but you're going to know it,
and you're going to know this. I had it straight from Theodore Burr the
night he died.

"Everard's going to sell you out at the next election, the whole of
you--his own crowd, too. He's been planning it for months. He's worked
prohibition for all it's worth to him; worked for it till the state went
dry, and then he's made money for you that are in it with him, and more
for himself, protecting places like Halloran's that sell liquor on the
quiet, and the smuggling of liquor into the state. Well, he's made money
enough that way, and it's getting risky, and now he sees a way to make
more and let nobody in on it. He's going to sell out to the liquor
interests and work against prohibition, and the big card he'll use will
be exposing Halloran's and the secret traffic in liquor, and all the
crowd that's been buying protection from him. There's a big campaign
started already, and big money being spent. There'll be big money in it
for him. There'll be arrests made here and a public scandal. He's going
to sell the town.

"Maybe that interests you some. Maybe it gets you. It won't for long.
He'll crawl out of it and lie out of it and talk you and buy you back to
him. Well, I know one thing more, and he can't lie or crawl out of it.
My father could have put him behind bars any time in twenty years. He's
a common thief.

"It was when he was seventeen, and studying law first, back in a town up
state that's not on the map or likely to get there, and he was called by
a name there that wasn't Everard. He was seventeen, but he was the same
then as now; he had the same will to get on and the power to, no matter
who he trampled on to get there, and the same charm that got men and
women both, though they didn't trust him--got