"Hannah, woman, I couldn't wait till Sunday! I couldn't rest! Knowing of

your situation, I felt as if I must come to you and say what I had on my

mind! Do you forgive me?"

"For what?" asked Hannah in surprise.

"For coming afore Sunday."

"Sit down, Reuben, and don't be silly. As well have it over now as any

other time."

"Very well, then, Hannah," said the man, drawing a chair to the table at

which she sat working, and seating himself.

"Now, then, what have you to say, Reuben?"

"Well, Hannah, my dear, you see I didn't want to make a disturbance

while the body of that poor girl lay unburied in the house; but now I

ask you right up and down who is the wretch as wronged Nora?" demanded

the man with a look of sternness Hannah had never seen on his patient

face before.

"Why do you wish to know, Reuben?" she inquired in a low voice.

"To kill him."

"Reuben Gray!"

"Well, what's the matter, girl?"

"Would you do murder?"

"Sartainly not, Hannah; but I will kill the villain as wronged Nora

wherever I find him, as I would a mad dog."

"It would be the same thing! It would be murder!"

"No, it wouldn't, Hannah. It would be honest killing. For when a cussed

villain hunts down and destroys an innocent girl, he ought to be counted

an outlaw that any man may slay who finds him. And if so be he don't get

his death from the first comer, he ought to be sure of getting it from

the girl's nearest male relation or next friend. And if every such

scoundrel knew he was sure to die for his crime, and the law would hold

his slayer guiltless, there would be a deal less sin and misery in this

world. As for me, Hannah, I feel it to be my solemn duty to Nora, to

womankind, and to the world, to seek out the wretch as wronged her and

kill him where I find him, just as I would a rattlesnake as had bit my

child."

"They would hang you for it, Reuben!" shuddered Hannah.

"Then they'd do very wrong! But they'd not hang me, Hannah! Thank

Heaven, in these here parts we all vally our women's innocence a deal

higher than we do our lives, or even our honor. And if a man is right to

kill another in defense of his own life, he is doubly right to do so in

defense of woman's honor. And judges and juries know it, too, and feel

it, as has been often proved. But anyways, whether or no," said Reuben

Gray, with the dogged persistence for which men of his class are often

noted, "I want to find that man to give him his dues."




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