as in his place I'd
do the selfsame thing. He is going to undo this marriage. I know-- I
see. Tilly is just a girl and I didn't tell her or him what to expect
down here. Am I right, Sam?"

Cavanaugh hung fire, then he nodded his head. John could see the tangled
shock of hair moving up and down.

"I knew that would be it," John said, returning to his chair. He sat
down, crossed his legs, and tugged at the strap of one of his shoes. It
broke off and he sat twisting it between his fingers.

"Yes, the sheriff called it 'annulment,'" Cavanaugh resumed, more
calmly. "He said that Whaley would have no trouble putting it through
the court which is in session, now, as it happens. Even the judge is
prejudiced--seems that he had heard of your ma. They ought not to fetch
in religion, but Whaley is going to prove that you are an atheist, so
they say. So you see, my boy, that what is to be done by us must be done
in a big hurry. I am going to see Fisher and Black the first thing in
the morning. They are the best lawyers in the South. I'll be there when
they open the office. I've got money enough to plank down a good
retaining fee. You helped me make it on that court-house. Just think of
it, we are going to win our case in that very building."

"You will not go to those lawyers, Sam."

"You say I won't?"

"No. I'm the one to decide that, and I've already done it."

"What do you mean, my boy? Surely you don't intend to sit quiet and let
a lot of mountain roughnecks--"

"You are hot-headed like the mob up at Cranston," John broke in, and
then made an apparent effort to proceed calmly. He took out his pipe and
began to knock its bowl against the heel of his shoe to prepare it for a
refilling. His nonchalant shrug was that of a thwarted school-boy. His
smile was little more than a grimace which the darkness further
distorted. "You are 'kicking against the pricks.' What is to be has to
be, and if you oppose it you get the worst of it. Besides, you are an
old fogy, Sam--you are out of date, moth-eaten. You have got some sort
of a Romeo love idea in your head. You are trying to make yourself
believe that--that Tilly will be unhappy the rest of her life if--if the
old man wins. Shucks! I know women. How long does a young widow wear
black these days? Old Whaley is right. That Cranston judge is right, the
sheriff, and all the damned mob, too. If death will free a woman from a
long life with a drunkard, the Cranston court can free one f