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goin' to lose this purty house—c-come easy, g-g-go easy . . ." and she disappeared, sobbing broken-heartedly.

Beatrice Belle drove Abner immediately to the jail, and its heavy walls and narrow barred windows struck Abner with dismay. It seemed impossible that his foster-father, the trustee of the county, could have come to this sinister place. Tears trickled slowly from Beatrice Belle's lashes to her cheeks. Mr. Pratt, who sat on the rear seat, leaned forward and put a hand on her shoulder.

"That's all right, Belle, it's unjust. Everybody knows your father is honest—it's all owing to Perry Northcutt's trying to cripple Jones. . . ."

Abner got out and went in.

The first floor of the jail was given over to Sheriff Bascom and his family for housekeeping. Inside the door sounded the noise of shouting and wailing children. Abner's repeated knock finally brought a tow-headed boy to open it. Abner said he wanted to see Mr. Sandage. The youngster shouted, "Mammy, here's a man wants to see somebody . . ." and a thin hillwoman presently appeared wiping her hands on her apron.

"Oh, you want to see Mr. Sandage," said the woman; "he's upstairs. You can go on up." She pointed to a flight of dirty stairs in the hallway. They were box stairs without banisters. At the top Abner found a trap door which let into the second story. This place was floored with iron sheeting and was divided into compartments by eight steel cages, four on a side. An aisle divided these dolorous cages, and the shadows of their bars lay across the aisle in the light from the narrow windows. The air smelled of unbathed persons and unemptied slops.

In one of the forward cells a Negro droned a "blue." In another cage two moonshiners were rehearsing obscene catch questions.

In the middle cell on the right side Abner found Mr. Sandage. The county trustee sat on his iron bunk in the corner of his cell. When he saw Abner he got up and came