Why should
he shelter the colonel at risk to himself? "If you please, Mr.
Cavendish!" said the judge quietly nodding toward the knife.
"You didn't ask me about him," said Hicks quickly.
"I do now," said the judge.
"He was here yesterday."
"Mr. Cavendish-- " and again the judge glanced toward the knife.
"Wait!" cried Hicks. "You go to Colonel Fentress."
"Let him up, Mr. Cavendish; that's all we want to mow," said the
judge.
CHAPTER XXIX
COLONEL FENTRESS
The judge had not forgotten his ghost, the ghost he had seen in
Mr. Saul's office that day he went to the court-house on business
for Charley Norton. Working or idling--principally the latter
--drunk or sober--principally the former--the ghost, otherwise
Colonel Fentress, had preserved a place in his thoughts, and now
as he moved stolidly up the drive toward Fentress' big white
house on the hill with Mahaffy, Cavendish, and Yancy trailing in
his wake, memories of what had once been living and vital crowded
in upon him. Some sense of the wreck that littered the long
years, and the shame of the open shame that had swept away pride
and self-respect, came back to him out of the past.
He only paused when he stood on the portico before Fentress' open
door. He glanced about him at the wide fields, bounded by the
distant timber lands that hid gloomy bottoms, at the great log
barns in the hollow to his right; at the huddle of whitewashed
cabins beyond; then with his big fist he reached in and pounded
on the door.
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