s, Sah."

"Who sleeps here?"

"Just little Steve and three of the women, they sleeps at the back of
the house, Sah.''

"No sounds were heard during the night?"

"No, Sah."

"I'll see the overseer--what's his name?--Hicks? Suppose you go for
him!" said the judge, addressing the sheriff.

The sheriff was gone from the room only a few moments, and returned
with the information that Hicks was down at the bayou, which was to be
dragged.

"Why?" inquired the judge.

"Hicks says Miss Malroy's been acting mighty queer ever since Charley
Norton was shot--distracted like! He says he noticed it, and that Tom
Ware noticed it."

"How does he explain the boy's disappearance?"

"He reckons she throwed herself in, and the boy tried to drag her out,
like he naturally would, and got drawed in."

"Humph! I'll trouble Mr. Hicks to step here," said the judge quietly.

"There's Mr. Carrington and a couple of strangers outside who've been
asking about Miss Malroy and the boy, seems like the strangers knowed
her and him back yonder in No'th Carolina," said the sheriff as he
turned away.

"I'll see them." The sheriff went from the room and the judge dismissed
the servants.

"Well, what do you think, Price?" asked Mahaffy anxiously when they were
alone.

"Rubbish! Take my word for it, Solomon, this blow is leveled at me. I
have been too forward in my attempts to suppress the carnival of crime
that is raging through west Tennessee. You'll observe that Miss Malroy
disappeared at a moment when the public is disposed to think she has
retained me as her legal adviser, probably she will be set at liberty
when she agrees to drop the matter of Norton's murder. As for the boy,
they'll use him to compel my silence and inaction." The judge took a
long breath. "Yet there remains one point where the boy is concerned
that completely baffles me. If we knew just a little more of his
antecedents it might cause me to make a startling and radical move."

Mahaffy was clearly not impressed by the vague generalities in which the
judge was dealing.

"There you go, Price, as usual, trying to convince yourself that you
are the center of everything!" he said, in a tone of much exasperation.
"Let's get down to business! What does this man Hicks mean by hinting at
suicide? You saw Miss Malroy yesterday?"

"You have put your finger on a point of some significance," said the
judge. "She bore evidence of the shock and loss she had sustained; aside
fr