ant him hung, for through her gathering
cloud of blame for his too faithful guardianship of his master's house,
she had gleams of tenderness and gratitude for him. She could not help
comparing him with Morgan in such moments of softness. Morgan had let
that boy drive him away; he seemed to have gone with such a terror of
him that he never had looked back. Joe, on the other hand, had stood by
her through the storm. No, she did not want them to hang Joe, but it
would be quite easy and comfortable with him out of the way for a long,
long time.

Public opinion was framing toward giving her the relief that she
desired. If anybody suspected that Ollie was concerned in her husband's
death, it was some remote person whose opinion did not affect the public
mind. The current belief was that Joe alone was to blame.

No matter how severe the world may be upon a woman after she is down in
the mire, there is no denying that it is reluctant to tumble her from
her eminence and throw her there. A woman will find more champions than
detractors in the face of the most serious charge; especially a young
and pretty one, or one whose life has been such as to shape sympathy for
her in itself.

All her neighbors knew that Isom's wife had suffered. That year of
penance in her life brought Ollie before them in a situation which was
an argument and plea for their sympathy and support.

In spite, then, of the coroner's attempt at the inquest to drag Ollie
into the tragedy, and to give foundation for his shrewd suspicion that
there had been something between Isom's wife and bondman which the
husband was unaware of, no sensation nor scandal had come of that. The
case was widely talked of, and it was the hope of every voter in the
county that he would be drawn on the jury to try the boy accused of the
murder. Even the busiest farmers began to plan their affairs so they
would have at least one day to spare to attend the trial at its most
interesting point.

The date set for the trial was approaching, and so was election day. The
prosecuting attorney, being up for reelection, hadn't time, at that busy
hour, to try a homicide case. He had to make speeches, and bestir
himself to save his valuable services to the state. The man penned in
jail, growing thin of cheek and lank of limb, could wait. There would be
other homicide cases, but there never would be another prosecuting
attorney so valuable as that one offering himself, and his young
ambitions,