Once his child came in, and he laid down his tools and kissed her. After she had merrily laughed and ran off he exclaimed: “When I look at her I could about forgive any one or anything!”

Why should Halstead be relentless? As Alton had pointed out, the two men had never met, and neither had a right to his personal enmity. As the world went the Colonel was a very just man. As the world was to be, perhaps Halstead touched more nearly the nerve of social adjustment.

In outward ways these men had led uneventful lives during their residence as neighbors. The Colonel possessed great landed property and had vast business interests. Halstead was a thriving tradesman. There had been political fights between the two, and Halstead wasknown for his ability and desire to lock horns with conventionalists in the solution of social questions.

As long as Halstead had simply agitated, the Colonel had considered him harmless. But when he succeeded in arousing the rural population to the Colonel’s overthrow, the Colonel had realized Halstead’s natural capacity for leadership.

The Colonel hated social heresy. In religion he was indifferent. Men might doubt all the gods of heaven, but the earthgods must not be denied. He called Halstead “dishonest,” and Halstead made a weapon of retaliation out of the same word. The Colonel had a way of referring to the shoemaker as “potentially of a thieving disposition.”

Jack Alton possessed a careless personality and he cultivated no enmities. His manners were free and easy, and he was mentally schooled