The Mena weekly star., 1913-02-13

smile overspread his battered fea. lures. He hitched his chin higher and souared his ponderous shoulders. "I s,l not forgotten--no, damn it-ro!" he exulfed under bis b-eath. Recalls me Vita sincere esteem and consid- CTS my services to the country as well worthy of recognition--' the judge hreathed deep. What would MahaTy ind to say now! Certainly this was yell calculated to disturb the sour cynicism of his friend His birared eyes brimmed, After all his groping he had touched hands with the reali- ties at last! Even federal judgeship though not an office of first repute in the south. had its dignity-it signified something! He would make Solomon his clerk! The judge reached for his hat. Mahaffy must know at once that fortune had mended for them. Why, at that moment he was actually in receipt of an income!
 He sat down, the better to enjoy the unique sensation. Taxes were be- ing levied and collected with no other end in view than his stipend-his ar dent fancy saw the whole machinery or government in operation for his benefit. It was a singular feeling he experienced. Then promptly his spendthrift brain became active. He needed clothes-so did Mahaffy-so did his grandson; they must take larger house; he would buy himself man servant; these were pressing ne cessities as he now viewed them.
 Once again he reached for his hat the desire to rush off to Belle Plain was overmastering.
 T reckon I'd be justified in hiring conveyance from Pegloe," he thought, but just here he had a sav- ing memory of his unfinished task; that claimed precedence and he re- sumed his pen.
 
 An hour later Pegloe's black boy presented himself to the judge. He came bearing gift, and the gift ap- propriately enough was square case bottle of respectable size. The judge was greatly touched by this attention, but he began by making a most tenn perate use of the tavern-keeper's of fering; then as the formidable docu- ment he was preparing took shape un- der his hand he more and more lost that feeling of Spartan fortitude which had at first sustained him in the presence of temptation. He wrote and slipped in complete and quiet lux ury, and when at last he had~exhaust- ed the contents of the bottle it oc- cured to him that it would be only proper personally to convey his thanks to Peeloe. Perhaps he was not un- inspired in this by ulterior hopes; if so, they were richly rewarded. The resources of the City Tavern were suddenly placed at his disposal. He attributed this to variety of causes all good and sufficient, but the real reason never suggested itself; indeed 1t was of such perfidious nature that the judge, open and generous-minded. could not have grasped it.
 By six o'clock he was undeniably drunk; at eight he was sounding still deeper depths of inebriety, with only the most confused memory of impend- ing events; at ten he collapsed and was borne upstairs by Pegloe and his black boy to a remote chamber in the kitchen wing. Here he was undressed and put to bed, and the tavern-keep. CT, making a bundle of his clothes. re tired from the room, locking the door after him, and the judge was doubly a prisoner.
 Housing at last from heavy, dreamiess sleep the judge was aware of faint impalpab.e light in his room the asben light of Iull October dawn He was aware, too, of a feeling of profound depression. He knew this was the aftermath of indulgence and that he might look forward to forty eight hours of utter misery of soul. and, grooming aloud, he closed his eyes. Sleep was the thing if he could compass it. Instead, his memory quickened. Something was to hap pen at sun-up-he could not recall what it was to be, though he distinct. lv remembered that Mahany had spoken of this very matter-Mahaffy the austere and implacable, the dis embodied conscience whose fealty to duty had somehow survived his owI spiritual ruin. so that he had becoma a sort of moral si2n-post, ever point ing the way yet never going it him self.
 The judge lay still and thought deeply as the light intensified itself