rs
in his eyes. He stood looking at the face of the unconscious man a long,
dreadful minute as one who pities rather than hates a foe. Then he
stepped to the telephone, called Dr. Nesbit, glanced at the fountain pen
and the crumpled letter, burst into a spasm of weeping, and tiptoed out
of the room.

CHAPTER XXI

IN WHICH WE SEE A FAT LITTLE RASCAL ON THE RACK

A year and a month and a day, an exceedingly hot day, after Judge Thomas
Van Dorn had fallen upon the stair leading to his office and had cut
that gash in his forehead which left the white thread of a scar upon his
high, broad brow, Judge Van Dorn sat in chambers in his office in the
court house, hearing an unimportant matter. Because the day was hot, the
Judge wore a gray silk coat, without a vest, and because the matter was
unimportant, no newspaper reporters were called in. The matter in hand
was highly informal. The Judge, tilted back in his easy chair, toyed
with his silken mustache, while counsel for defendant, standing by the
desk before which the Judge's chair was swinging, handled the papers
representing the defendant's answer, to the plaintiff's pleadings. The
plaintiff herself, dressed in rather higher sleeves than would have been
thought possible to put upon a human form and make them stand erect,
with a rather larger hat than one would have said might be carried by a
single human neck without bowing it; the plaintiff above mentioned was
rattling the court's paper knife.

Plaintiff's counsel, a callow youth from the law offices of Joseph
Calvin, to be exact, Joseph Calvin, Jr., sat meekly on the edge of a
small chair in the corner and being a chip of the old block, had little
to say. The court and said hereinbefore described plaintiff talked
freely between whiles as the counsel for said defendant, Henry Fenn, ran
over his papers, looking for particular phrases, statements or exhibits
which he desired to present to the court.

It appeared from the desultory reading of the papers by the attorney for
the said defendant, Henry Fenn, that he had no desire to impose upon the
plaintiff, as above described, any hardships in the matter and that the
agreement reached by counsel as to the disposition of the joint property
should be carried out as indicated in the answer submitted to the
court--see folio No. 3. Though counsel for defendant smilingly told the
court that if the counsel were Henry Fenn, he should not give up
property worth at least fiv