n the Bishop:

"You sat by the roadside and got a glimpse of the tragedy of my life
as it whirled by you on the road! How dare you come here to tell me
the little bit of it you saw?"

"Because," said the Bishop swiftly, "you have forgotten how great and
brave a man you are."

Stanton stared uncomprehendingly at him. He was stirred to the depths
of feelings that he had not known for years. But even in his emotion
and bewilderment the steel trap of silence set upon his face. His
lifetime of never speaking until he knew what he was going to say kept
him waiting to hear more. It was not any conscious caution; it was
merely the instinct of self-defence.

"For months," the Bishop was going on quietly, "the people of my hills
have been harassed by you in your unfair efforts to get possession of
the lands upon which their fathers built their homes. You have tried
to cheat them. You have sent men to lie to them. You tried to debauch
a legislature in your attempt to overcome them. I have here in my
pocket the sworn confessions of two men who stood in the shadow of
death and said that they had been sent to burn a whole countryside
that you and your associates coveted--to burn the people in their
homes like the meadow birds in their nests. I can trace that act to
within two men of you. And I can sit here, Clifford Stanton, and look
you in the eye man to man and tell you that I _know_ you gave the
suggestion. And you cannot look back and deny it. I cannot take you
into a court of law in this State and prove it. We both know the
futility of talking of that. But I can take you, I do take you this
minute into the court of your own heart--where I know a brave man
lives--and convict you of this thing. You know it. I know it. If the
whole world stood here accusing you would we know it any the better?

"Now my people have made a terrible mistake. They have taken the law
into their own hands and have thought to punish you themselves. They
have done wrong, they have done foolishly. Who can punish you? You
have power above the law. Your interests are above the courts of the
land. They did not understand. They did not know you. They have been
misled. They have listened to men like me preaching: 'Right shall
prevail: Justice shall conquer.' And where does right prevail? And
when shall justice conquer? No doubt you have said these phrases
yourself. Because your fathers and my fathers taught us to say them.
But are they true? Does justice c