"Mr. Smugg?" repeated the chairman.

"Mr. Smugg," interposed Tritton suavely, "probably feels himself in a
difficulty. The secret is not, perhaps, entirely his own."

We all nodded.

"We enter a plea of not guilty for Mr. Smugg," observed the chairman
gravely.

"I seed 'im do it," said Joe.

No one spoke. Joe finished his beer, pulled his forelock, and turned
on his heel. Suddenly Smugg burst into speech. He could hardly form
his words, and they jostled one another in the breathless confusion of
his utterance.

"I--I--you've no right. I say nothing. If I choose, I shall--no one
has a right to stop me. If I love her--if she doesn't mind--I say
nothing--nothing at all. I won't hear a word. I shall do as I like."

Joe had paused to hear him, and now stood looking at him in wonder.
Then he stepped quickly up to the table, and, leaning across, asked in
a harsh voice:

"You mean honest, do you, by her? You'd make her your wife, would you?"

Smugg, looking straight in front of him, answered:

"Yes."

Joe drew back, touched his forelock again, and said:

"Then it's fair fighting, sir, begging your pardon; and no offense.
But the girl was mine first, sir."

Then Gayford interposed.

"Mr. Smugg," said he, "you tell Joe, here, that you'd marry this lady.
May I ask how you can--when----"

But for once Smugg was able to silence one of his pupils. He arose
from his seat, and brought his hand heavily down on Gayford's shoulder.

"Hold your tongue!" he cried. "I must answer to God, but I needn't
answer to you."

Joe looked at him with round eyes, and, with a last salute, slowly went
out. None of us spoke, and presently Smugg opened his Thucydides.

For my part, I took very considerable interest in Pyrrha's side of the
question. I amused myself by constructing a fancy-born love of
Pyrrha's for her social superior, and if he had been one of ourselves,
I should have seen no absurdity. But Smugg refused altogether to fit
into my frame. There was no glamour about Smugg; and, to tell the
truth, I should have thought that any girl, be her station what it
might, faced with the alternative of Smugg and Joe, would have chosen
Joe. In my opinion, Pyrrha was merely amusing herself with Smugg, and
I was rather comforted by this reversal of the ordinary roles. Still,
I could not rest in conjecture, and my curiosity led me up to Dill's
little farm on the afternoon of the day of Joe's sudden appearance.
Th