t
done for her."

The two men looked into each other's eyes, and what each read there made
a sacred, unbreakable bond between them for all the years to come.

The trial was held in the hotel parlor, behind closed doors. The charges
were vague and poorly supported by evidence, but the venom back of them
was definite. Plainly stated, a pretty, incompetent girl had come West
_for some reason_ never made clear to New Eden. Come as an heiress in
"style and stuckuppitude of manner" (that was Stellar Bahrr's phrasing);
had suddenly become poor and dependent on the good-will of J. B. Ponk,
who had fought to the bitter end to give her "a place on the town
pay-roll and keep her there" (that was the jealous superintendent's
phrasing); and on the patronage of York Macpherson, who had really took
her in, he and his honorable sister, even if they really were the worse
"took in" of the two. At this point Ponk rapped for a better expression
of terms. The young person had tried to "run things" in the church and
schools and society. Even the superintendent himself had to be sure of
her approval before he dared to start any movement in the high school.
And no one of the preachers would invite her to unite with his church.

But to the charges now:

First: She had refused to let Clare Lenwell graduate who wasn't any
worse than the rest of the class.

Secondly: She had a way of riding around over the country with young men
on moonlight nights on horseback. Of going, the Lord knows where, with
young men, _joy-riding_ in cars, or of going alone wherever she pleased
in hired livery cars. And _some_ thought she met strange men and was
acquainted with rough characters, and the moral influence of that was
awfully bad; and there was something _even worse_, if that were
possible, WORSE!

Things had disappeared around town often, but in _the last three years_
especially. If folks were poor, they needed money.

Then Stellar Bahrr came into the ring.

Jerry had sat and listened to the proceedings as an indifferent
spectator to what could in no wise concern her. With the entrance of
Mrs. Bahrr to the witness-stand, the girl's big, dreamy eyes grew
brighter and her firm mouth was set, but no mark of anxiety showed
itself in her face or manner.

Mrs. Bahrr whined a bit as to wishing only to do the right thing, but
her steel-pointed eyes, as she fixed them in Jerry, wrote as with a
stylus across the girl's understanding:

"You are hopelessly i