ry.

"You went to see him?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"To git some money out of him."

"Did he owe you money?"

"No."

"How much money did you go to get?"

"Two hunderd dollars."

"Did you get it?"

"Yes."

"Do you know what money it was?"

"Church-organ money. He told me."

"Why did he give it to you?"

"I made him."

"How?"

"Lemme tell it my own way--if I got to tell it.... He'd took my girl,
and I never liked him, anyhow.... There'd been rumors his old man was
bootleggin'. Nothin' to it, of course, and I knowed that. And I needed
some money. Bought a beef critter off'n Marvin Preston next day. So I
went to Mavin and says I was goin' to arrest his old man because I'd
ketched him sellin' liquor, and Mavin he begged me I shouldn't. I told
him the old man would git ten year, anyhow."

"What did Mavin say to that?"

"He jest bowed his head and kind of leaned against the stall."

"Then what?"

"I let on I needed money, and told him if he'd gimme two hunderd dollars
I'd destroy the evidence and let the old man go. He says he didn't have
the money, and I says he had the organ money. He didn't say nothin' for
a spell, and then he says, kind of low, and wonderin', 'Which 'u'd be
the worst? Which 'u'd be the worst?' Then I says, 'Worst what?' And he
says for his father to be ketched for a bootlegger or for him to be a
thief.... I jest let him think about it, and didn't say nothin', because
I knowed how he looked up to his old man.

"Pretty soon he says: 'I'd be a thief, 'cause I couldn't explain. I'd
have to run off--and leave Mattie, that I'm a-goin' to marry
to-morrer.... I could pay it back, but that wouldn't do no good.... But
for father to be arrested, him an elder, and all, would kill him. I
couldn't bear for father to be shamed 'fore all the world or to be
thought guilty of sich a thing.... He's wuth a heap more 'n I be, and he
won't never do it ag'in.' Then he asks if I'll give a letter to his old
man, and I says yes. He walked up and down for maybe a quarter of an
hour, talkin' to himself, and kind of fightin' it out, but I knowed what
he'd do, right along. At the end he come over and says: 'This here means
ruinin' my life and breakin' Mattie's heart ... but I calc'late that's
better 'n holdin' father up to scorn and seein' him in jail.... If they
was only some other way!' His voice was stiddylike, but he was right
pale and his eyes was a-shinin'. I remember how they was a-shinin'. 'I
calc'late,