nto the
back seat of the buckboard with her burning face turned from the station
and her eyes fixed on the ground. She wanted to run away, as she had run
from him the first time she had ever seen him. Then, as now, he came
in triumph, hailed by the plaudits of his fellows; and now, as on that
long-departed day of her young girlhood, he was borne high over the
heads of the people, for Minnie cried to her to look; they were carrying
him on their shoulders to his carriage. She had had only that brief
glimpse of him, before he was lost in the crowd that was so glad to get
him back again and so proud of him; but she had seen that he looked very
white and solemn.

Briscoe and Tom Meredith made their way through the crowd, and climbed
into the buckboard. "All right, Lige," called the judge to Willetts, who
was at the horses' heads. "You go get into line with the boys; they want
you. We'll go down on Main Street to see the parade," he explained to
the ladies, gathering the reins in his hand.

He clucked to the roans, and by dint of backing and twisting and turning
and a hundred intricate manoeuvres, accompanied by entreaties
and remonstrances and objurgations, addressed to the occupants of
surrounding vehicles, he managed to extricate the buckboard from the
press; and once free, the team went down the road toward Main Street
at a lively gait. The judge's call to the colts rang out cheerily; his
handsome face was one broad smile. "This is a big day for Carlow," he
said; "I don't remember a better day's work in twenty years."

"Did you tell him about Mr. Halloway?" asked Helen, leaning forward
anxiously.

"Warren told him before we left the car," answered Briscoe. "He'd have
declined on the spot, I expect, if we hadn't made him sure it was all
right with Kedge."

"If I understood what Mr. Smith was saying, Halloway must have behaved
very well," said Meredith.

The judge laughed. "He saw it was the only way to beat McCune, and he'd
have given his life and Harkless's, too, rather than let McCune have
it."

"Why didn't you stay with him, Tom?" asked Helen.

"With Halloway? I don't know him."

"One forgives a generous hilarity anything, even such quips as that,"
she retorted. "Why did you not stay with Mr. Harkless?"

"That's very hospitable of you," laughed the young man. "You forget that
I have the felicity to sit at your side. Judge Briscoe has been kind
enough to ask me to review the procession from his buckboard and