-I'm agin 'em, I'm agin
'em every time!" And again, as if to give force to his words, he swung
his heavy first around and struck the open palm of his other hand a
stinging blow. "Eatin' and sleepin', I'm agin 'em! I ain't liked the
look of this from the first, and now I'm down and out, and they can go
to hell for all of me!"

The judge rested an elbow on the chimneypiece and regarded Montgomery
curiously. He knew the man was drunk; he knew that sober he would
probably have said much less than he was now saying, but he also knew
that there was some powerful feeling back of his words.

"If you are involved in any questionable manner with Mr. Gilmore, I
should advise you to think twice before you go further with it. Mr.
Gilmore is shrewd, he has money; you are a poor man and you are an
ignorant man. Your reputation is none of the best."

"Thank you, boss!" said Montgomery gratefully.

"Mr. Gilmore probably expects to use you for his own ends regardless of
the consequences to you," finished the judge.

"Supposin'--" began the handy-man huskily, "supposin', boss, I was to go
into court and swear to something that wasn't so; what's that?" and he
bent a searching glance on the judge's face.

"Perjury," said the judge laconically.

"What's it worth to a man? I reckon it's like drinkin' and stealin',
it's got so many days and costs chalked up agin it?"

"I think," said the judge quietly, "that you would better tell me what
you mean. Ordinarily I should not care to mix in your concerns, but on
Nellie's account--"

"God take a likin' to you, boss!" cried Montgomery. "I know I ought to
have kept out of this. I told Andy Gilmore how it would be, that I
hadn't the brains for it; but he was to stand back of me. And so he
will--to give me a kick and a shove when he's done with me!"

He saw himself caught in that treacherous fabric Gilmore had erected for
John North, whose powerful friends would get him clear. Andy and Marsh
would go unscathed, too. Only Joe Montgomery would suffer--Joe
Montgomery, penniless and friendless, a cur in the gutter for any decent
man to kick! He passed the back of his hand across his face.

"It's a hell of a world and be damned to it!" he muttered hoarsely under
his breath.

"You must make it clearer to me than this!" said the judge impatiently.

Montgomery seemed to undergo a brief but intense mental struggle, then
he blurted out:

"Boss, I lied when I said it was North I seen come over old