e vengeance must be subordinated to law
and order and the higher good. A new body of thought must be built up,
in which stress must be laid upon the eternal verities, in the light
of which difficulties which now seemed unsurmountable would be
gradually overcome.

But this halcyon period was yet afar off, and the colonel roused
himself to the duty of the hour. With the best intentions he had let
loose upon the community, in a questionable way, a desperate
character. It was no less than his plain duty to put the man under
restraint. To rescue from Fetters a man whose life was threatened, was
one thing. To leave a murderer at large now would be to endanger
innocent lives, and imperil Ben Dudley's future.

The arrest of Bud Johnson brought an end to the case against Ben
Dudley. The prosecuting attorney, who was under political obligations
to Fetters, seemed reluctant to dismiss the case, until Johnson's
guilt should have been legally proved; but the result of the Negro's
preliminary hearing rendered this position no longer tenable; the case
against Ben was nolled, and he could now hold up his head as a free
man, with no stain upon his character.

Indeed, the reaction in his favour as one unjustly indicted, went far
to wipe out from the public mind the impression that he was a drunkard
and a rowdy. It was recalled that he was of good family and that his
forebears had rendered valuable service to the State, and that he had
never been seen to drink before, or known to be in a fight, but that
on the contrary he was quiet and harmless to a fault. Indeed, the
Clarendon public would have admired a little more spirit in a young
man, even to the extent of condoning an occasional lapse into license.

There was sincere rejoicing at the Treadwell house when Ben, now free
in mind, went around to see the ladies. Miss Laura was warmly
sympathetic and congratulatory; and Graciella, tearfully happy, tried
to make up by a sweet humility, through which shone the true
womanliness of a hitherto undeveloped character, for the past stings
and humiliations to which her selfish caprice had subjected her lover.
Ben resumed his visits, if not with quite their former frequency, and
it was only a day or two later that the colonel found him and
Graciella, with his own boy Phil, grouped in familiar fashion on the
steps, where Ben was demonstrating with some pride of success, the
operation of his model, into which he was feeding cotton when the
colon