Page:Honore Willsie--Judith of the godless valley.djvu/148

 Dad! Judith, you stay right where you are. You're at the bottom of this whole trouble and I want you to see and hear it."

"Draw it mild, Douglas!" protested the postmaster.

"Don't bother about me," said Jude. "I sure-gawd can take care of myself."

"What happens next?" inquired Jimmy Day.

Nobody spoke for a moment; then very deliberately, Peter turned to the sheriff.

"You remember Doug's mother, don't you, Frank? I can't help thinking how much he looks like her, to-day, although he's the image of John."

"Remember her! I tried for five years to get her to marry me. But her old dad wouldn't stand for it."

"You mean she couldn't see you because of me, Frank!" exclaimed John, a sudden light in his handsome eyes.

Douglas again favored the postmaster with a contemplative stare.

"Some old wolf, her dad, I've heard," Peter went on.

"He was," agreed the sheriff. "He ran the valley and he ran it right. Every Fourth of July he made a speech about making Lost Chief the Plymouth Rock of the West."

Charleton Falkner roared. "I rememer [sic] those speeches!"

Peter was grinning. "But in spite of them, from what I've heard I believe he came mighty near being a great man, old Bill Douglas."

"What did he lack?" demanded Douglas suddenly.

"Religion!" answered Peter, promptly. "Religion? What's that?" asked John with a guffaw.

"You never had any, Peter."

"Right!" agreed Peter. "Worse luck for me that I