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I8 REQUIEM FOR A NUN

got back firom Holston House 'with old Alec’s permis-sion to remove it from the mail-pouch or lue it for the new purpose. Not that he would have objected on prin- ciple nor refused his permission except by simple dnstmct; that is, he would probably have been the first to suggest the lock if he had known in time or thought of it firsfc but he would have refused at once if he thought the thing was contemplated without consulting him. Which every- body in the setdement knew, though this was not at all why they didn’t wait for the messenger. In fact, nb mes- senger had ever been sent to old Alec; they didn’t have time to send one, let alone wait until he gqf back; they didn’t want the lock to keep the bandits in, since (as was later proved) the old lock would have been no more obstacle for the bandks to pass than the customary wooden bar; they didn’t need the lock to protect the setdement from the bandits, but to protect the bandits ^n^ the setdement. Because die prisoners had barely reached the setdement when it developed that there was a faction bent on lynching them at once, out of hand, without preliminary — a small but determined gang which tried to Wrest the prisoners from their captors while the mditia was still trying to find someone to surrender them to, and would have succeeded except for a man named Compson, who had come to the setdement a few years ago ■with a race-horse, which he swapped to Ikkemotubbe, Issetibbeha’s successor in the chiefship, for a square mile of what was to be the most valuable land in the future town of Jefferson, who, legend, said, drew a pistol and held the ravishers at bay until the bandits cpuld be got into die jail and the auger holes bored and someone sent to fetch old Alec Holston’s lock. Because there were