rolled the court-house yard to reassure venire-men and
witnesses. The only result was the defeat, at the next election, of the
judge and prosecutor who had made themselves obnoxious."

"Why," I inquired, "aren't such malefactors taken into a civilized
circuit, on a change of venue, and tried where jurors are not
intimidated?"

"They have been--with the same result," affirmed my informant. "You see,
while the jurors were freed from fear, the witnesses knew they must
return home."

"Shall we be likely to meet this highly interesting character?" I
questioned.

"The store where our wagon turns back," said Weighborne, "is his place."

"Then I am to be careful not to form or express any opinion adverse to
judicious homicide? Is that the point?"

Weighborne smiled.

"Our plans involve bringing a branch railroad along the way we have been
traveling," he replied, "and the coming of that railroad means the
death knell of Jim Garvin's power. What is still more to the point, our
attorney here and the man for whose house we are bound is the Hon.
Calloway Marcus. He was Keithley's law partner, and he is a marked man.
He it was who prosecuted Garvin--and lost his official head. His actual
head he keeps on his shoulders by riding at the center of a bodyguard. I
tell you these matters so that you may watch your words."

"Shall we encounter open hostility at this place?" I inquired.

Weighborne shook his head. "On the contrary, we shall be most
courteously received. Politeness is highly esteemed hereabouts. The fact
that a man means to 'lay-way' you to-night, with a squirrel gun, is not
deemed sufficient reason for relaxing his courtesy this afternoon."

An hour later our conveyance drew up at the junction of two ragged roads
where thin, outcropping ledges of limestone went down to the rim of a
shallow stream. Beyond the water rose a beetling bluff. One could
imagine that when summer brought to this hollow in the hills its
richness of green, and its profusion of trumpet flower and laurel and
rhododendron, there must be an eye-filling beauty, but now it was
unspeakably raw and desolate.

Two houses were in sight and both were of depressing ugliness. In the
fork of the road where the ground was trodden hard stood the "store." It
was a one-room shack built of logs and boarded over, but innocent of
paint. A leanto porch, disfigured by a few advertising signs, gave
entrance to a narrow door. The second house set back and higher u