d him to do."

"What have you told him--what is he doing--what does it all mean?"
demanded Aurora Lane.

"Nothing," said the big man, still gazing ruminatingly at the scene
beyond. "As a member of the bar I was bound to give him such counsel as
should be of most practical benefit to him--I swore that in my oath of
admission to the bar. So I told him that as soon as court was adjourned
he ought to take old Eph Adamson and thrash him this time good and
proper. I told him nothing would come of it if he did. I told him it was
his plain duty to do it, and if he didn't do it I'd do it myself,
because the dogs have got to be put to sleep again now in this town....
I must say," he added, "I am inclined to believe that my client is
following his instructions to the letter!" After which Hod Brooks
strolled on away.

The crowd at the farther corner of the square broke apart before long.

"By jinks! Silas," said old Aaron to his friend, "who'd a thought it?
I've seen some fights, but that was the shortest I ever did see. And he
made old Eph Adamson holler 'enough!' By criminy! he done that very
thing. Looks to me, safest thing right is not to talk too much about
'Rory Lane!"

Don Lane emerged from the thick of the crowd, his coat over his arm, his
face pale in anger, his eye seeking any other champion who might oppose
him.

"Listen to me now, you people!" he said. "If there's another one of you
that ever does what that man there has done, or says what he said, he'll
get the same he did, or worse. You hear me, now--I'll thrash the life
out of any man that raises his voice against anyone of my family. You
hear me, now?"

He cast a straight and steady gaze upon Old Man Tarbush, who stood
irresolute.

"No, you'll not arrest me again," said he. "You know you won't. You'll
leave me alone. If you don't, you'll be the next. I don't love you any
too well the way it is.

"Get out now, all of you--you most of all," he added, and gave Marshal
Tarbush a contemptuous shove as he elbowed his own way on out of the
crowd.

Old Hod Brooks passed on down the street and took the opposite side of
the public square, paying no attention to all this. He ambled on until
he found his own office at length. A half hour later he might have been
seen in his customary attitude, slouched deep down into his chair, his
head sunk between his shoulders, his feet propped up on the table, and
his eyes bent on the pages of a volume of the law.

He had in