could get the options from the people. They would sell or hold out at
his word. The railroad would have to deal with him direct, and at his
terms.

Jeffrey Whiting had gotten promises from many of the owners that they
would not sell or even sign any paper until such time as he gave them
the word. Did those promises bind the people to him? They did. Did
they have the same effect as if Jeffrey Whiting had obtained actual
options on the property? Yes. Would the people stand by their
promises? Yes. Then Whiting had actually been obtaining what were
really options to himself, while pretending to hold the people back in
their own interest? Yes.

The prosecutor went on to draw out answer after answer tending to show
that it was not really a conflict between the people and the railroad
that had been making trouble in the hills all summer; that it was, in
fact, merely a personal struggle for influence and gain between
Jeffrey Whiting and the man who had been killed. It was skilfully done
and drawn out with all the exaggerated effect of truth which bald
negative and affirmative answers invariably carry.

He went on to show that a bitter hatred had grown up between the two
men. Rogers had been accused of hiring men to get Whiting out of the
way at a time in the early summer when many of the people about French
Village had been prepared to sign Rogers' options. Rogers had been
obliged to fly from the neighbourhood on account of Whiting's anger.
He had not returned to the hills until the day before he was killed.

The people in the hills had talked freely of what had happened on Bald
Mountain on the morning of August twentieth and in the hills during
the afternoon and night preceding. The prosecutor knew the incidents
and knew what men had said to each other. He now called Myron
Stocking.

"Did you meet Jeffrey Whiting on the afternoon of August nineteenth?"
was the question.

"I went lookin' for him, to tell--"

"Answer, yes or no?" shouted the attorney.

"Yes," the witness admitted sullenly.

"Did you tell him that Rogers was in the hills?"

"Yes."

"Did he take his gun from you and start immediately?"

"He followed me," the witness began. But the Judge rapped warningly
and the attorney yelled:

"Yes or no?"

"Yes."

"Did you see Rogers in the morning?"

"Yes, he was settin' fire to--" The Judge hammering furiously with his
gavel drowned his words. The attorney went on:

"Did you hear a shot?"

"Yes."