ing up by the mines?" he called back.

"Perhaps will you show us around?"

"I guess I will," he said emphatically, and he went on to risk his neck
on a ten-mile ride along a mountain road in the dark.

"I LIKE a man," said the Blight. "I like a MAN."

Of course the Blight must see everything, so she insisted on going to
the police court next morning for the trial of the mountain boy. The boy
was in the witness chair when we got there, and the Hon. Samuel Budd was
his counsel. He had volunteered to defend the prisoner, I was soon told,
and then I understood. The November election was not far off and the
Hon. Samuel Budd was candidate for legislature. More even, the boy's
father was a warm supporter of Mr. Budd and the boy himself might
perhaps render good service in the cause when the time came--as indeed
he did. On one of the front chairs sat the young engineer and it was a
question whether he or the prisoner saw the Blight's black plumes first.
The eyes of both flashed toward her simultaneously, the engineer colored
perceptibly and the mountain boy stopped short in speech and his pallid
face flushed with unmistakable shame. Then he went on: "He had liquered
up," he said, "and had got tight afore he knowed it and he didn't mean
no harm and had never been arrested afore in his whole life."

"Have you ever been drunk before?" asked the prosecuting attorney
severely. The lad looked surprised.

"Co'se I have, but I ain't goin' to agin--leastwise not in this here
town." There was a general laugh at this and the aged mayor rapped
loudly.

"That will do," said the attorney.

The lad stepped down, hitched his chair slightly so that his back was
to the Blight, sank down in it until his head rested on the back of the
chair and crossed his legs. The Hon. Samuel Budd arose and the Blight
looked at him with wonder. His long yellow hair was parted in the middle
and brushed with plaster-like precision behind two enormous ears, he
wore spectacles, gold-rimmed and with great staring lenses, and his face
was smooth and ageless. He caressed his chin ruminatingly and rolled
his lips until they settled into a fine resultant of wisdom, patience,
toleration and firmness. His manner was profound and his voice oily and
soothing.

"May it please your Honor--my young friend frankly pleads guilty." He
paused as though the majesty of the law could ask no more. "He is
a young man of naturally high and somewhat--naturally, too, no
doubt--b