est me, too?"

"So holp me Almighty God, men," the voice of the officer carried
conviction of its sincerity. "I came over hyar only bearin' tidin's
from Lone Stacy. I hain't aidin' no revenue. I heered Mark Tapper 'low
thet he hedn't no charge ter mek ergin ye jest now."

"In that case," declared Henderson, assuming the role of spokesman,
"we'll both go with you to the jail. Bear Cat will give me the gun,
since he can't go in unsearched, and you will remain with me, unarmed,
as a hostage until he comes out."

"Thet satisfies me, all right," readily agreed the town marshal.

The jail-house at Marlin Town squats low of roof and uncompromising in
its squareness to the left of the Courthouse; hardly more than a brick
pen, sturdily solid and sullenly unlovely of facade.

When father and son met in the bare room where one rude chair was the
only furnishing save for a tin basin on a soap-box, the fire of renewed
wrath leaped in Turner's eyes and he spoke with a tremor of voice:

"I reckon ye knows full well, pap, thet I don't aim ter let ye lay hyar
long. I aims ter tek ye outen hyar afore sun-up--ef I hes ter take ye
single-handed!"

The sunset was fading and in the bleak cell there was a grayness
relieved only by the dim light from a high, barred slit that served as
a window. The two men had to peer intently at each other through
widened pupils to read the expression of lips and eyes.

Old Lone Stacy smiled grimly.

"I'm obleeged ter ye, son." His response was quiet. "An' I knows ye
means what ye says, but jest now ye've got ter let _me_ decide whether
hit's a fit time ter wage war--or submit."

"Submit!" echoed the son in blank amazement. "Ye don't aim ter let 'em
penitenshery ye ergin, does ye?"

Laying a soothing hand on the arm that shook passionately, the senior
went on in a modulated voice.

"I've done studied this matter out, son, more ca'mly then you've hed
time ter do yit--an' I discerns how ye kin holp me best. Sometimes hit
profits a man more ter study ther fox then ther eagle."

The boy stood there in the half light, finding it bitter to stomach
such passive counsel, but he gulped down his rising gorge of fury and
forced himself to acquiesce calmly, "I'm hearkenin' ter ye."

"Ther revenue 'lowed thet he war plumb obleeged ter jail me," went on
the elder moonshiner evenly, "because tidin's hes done reached ther men
up above him."

"I aims ter compel Mark Tapper ter give me ther names of them damn