--had completed the change whereby she had been molded or
beaten or broken into another woman. She felt calm, slightly cold,
strong as she had not been strong since the first shadow fell upon her.

"I jest saw about all of it, Miss Withersteen, an' I'll be glad to tell
you if you'll only hev patience with me," said Judkins, earnestly. "You
see, I've been pecooliarly interested, an' nat'rully I'm some excited.
An' I talk a lot thet mebbe ain't necessary, but I can't help thet.

"I was at the meetin'-house where Dyer was holdin' court. You know he
allus acts as magistrate an' judge when Tull's away. An' the trial
was fer tryin' what's left of my boy riders--thet helped me hold your
cattle--fer a lot of hatched-up things the boys never did. We're used to
thet, an' the boys wouldn't hev minded bein' locked up fer a while,
or hevin' to dig ditches, or whatever the judge laid down. You see, I
divided the gold you give me among all my boys, an' they all hid it,
en' they all feel rich. Howsomever, court was adjourned before the judge
passed sentence. Yes, ma'm, court was adjourned some strange an' quick,
much as if lightnin' hed struck the meetin'-house.

"I hed trouble attendin' the trial, but I got in. There was a good many
people there, all my boys, an' Judge Dyer with his several clerks. Also
he hed with him the five riders who've been guardin' him pretty close of
late. They was Carter, Wright, Jengessen, an' two new riders from Stone
Bridge. I didn't hear their names, but I heard they was handy men with
guns an' they looked more like rustlers than riders. Anyway, there they
was, the five all in a row.

"Judge Dyer was tellin' Willie Kern, one of my best an' steadiest
boys--Dyer was tellin' him how there was a ditch opened near Willie's
home lettin' water through his lot, where it hadn't ought to go. An'
Willie was tryin' to git a word in to prove he wasn't at home all the
day it happened--which was true, as I know--but Willie couldn't git a
word in, an' then Judge Dyer went on layin' down the law. An' all to
onct he happened to look down the long room. An' if ever any man turned
to stone he was thet man.

"Nat'rully I looked back to see what hed acted so powerful strange on
the judge. An' there, half-way up the room, in the middle of the wide
aisle, stood Lassiter! All white an' black he looked, an' I can't think
of anythin' he resembled, onless it's death. Venters made thet same room
some still an' chilly when he call