this account. Every charge I have evidence to
prove beyond any shadow of question. I could call you before the civil
courts at once. That I have not done it has not been for my son's sake,
nor for Marjie's, nor her mother's, but for the sake of the one I have
no personal cause to protect, the worst one connected with this business
outside of yourself and that scoundrel Mapleson--for the sake of a
woman. It is a man's business to shield her, not to drag her down to
perdition. I said I would send for you when it was time for you to come
again, when I was ready for you. I have sent for you. Now you must
answer me."

Judson, sitting in a crumpled-up heap in the big armchair in John
Baronet's private office, tried vainly for a time to collect his forces.
At last he turned to the one resource we all seek in our misdoing: he
tried to justify himself by blaming others.

"Judge Baronet," his high thin voice always turned to a whine when he
lowered it. "Judge Baronet, I don't see why I'm the only one you call to
account. There's Tell Mapleson and Jim Conlow and the Rev. Dodd and a
lot more done and planned to do what I'd never 'a dreamed of. Now, why
do I have to bear all of it?"

"You have only your part to bear, no more; and as to Tell Mapleson, his
time is coming."

"I think I might have some help. You know all the law, and I don't know
any law." My father did not smile at the evident truth of the last
clause.

"You can have all the law, evidence, and witnesses you choose. You may
carry your case up to the highest court. Law is my business; but I'll
be fair and say to you that a man's case is sometimes safer settled out
of court, if mercy is to play any part. I've no cause to shield you, but
I'm willing you should know this."

"I don't want to go to court. Tell's told me over and over I'd never
have a ghost of a show"--he was talking blindly now--"I want somebody to
shake you loose from me. That's it, I want to get rid of you."

"How much time will it require to get your counsel and come here again?"

If a man sells his soul for wealth, the hardest trial of his life comes
when he first gets face to face with the need of what money cannot buy;
that is, loyalty. Such a trial came to Judson at this moment. Mapleson
had warned him about Baronet, but in his puny egotistic narrowness he
thought himself the equal of the best. Now he knew that neither Mapleson
nor any other of the crew with whom he had been a law-breaker woul