No, Solomon,
no--I won't shirk a single irksome responsibility," and the
judge's voice shook with suppressed emotion. Mahaffy laughed.
"There you go again, Solomon, with that indecent mirth of yours!
Friendship aside, you grow more offensive every day." The judge
paused and then resumed. "I understand there's a federal
judgeship vacant here. The president--" Mr. Mahafly gave him a
furtive leer. "I tell you General Jackson was my friend--we were
brothers, sir--I stood at his side on the glorious blood-wet
field of New Orleans! You don't believe me "
"Price, you've made more demands on my stock of credulity than
any man I've ever known!"
The judge became somber-faced.
"Unparalleled misfortune overtook me--I stepped aside, but the
world never waits; I was a cog discarded from the mechanism of
society--" He was so pleased with the metaphor that he repeated
it.
"Look here, Price, you talk as though you were a modern job;
what's the matter anyhow?--have you got boils?"
The judge froze into stony silence. Well, Mahaffy could sneer
--he would show him! This was the last ditch and he proposed to
descend into it, it was something to be able to demand the final
word of fate--but he instantly recalled that he had been playing
at hide-and-seek with inevitable consequences for something like
a quarter of a century; it had been a triumph merely to exist.
Mahaffy having eased his conscience, rolled over and promptly
went to sleep.
Pages:
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196