his way. But, almost immediately, he stopped.

"Your name?" he demanded.

"Adelaide Crandall."

The Crandalls, he knew, were a reputable family
living in the valley bottom east of Greenstream village.
Matthew Crandall had died a few years before,
and, as this girl had indicated, had left a substantial
farm to each of his sons. Cannon would
get this one, and it was more than probable, the
others.

The old enmity against Valentine Simmons, directed
at Cannon, flamed afresh. Simmons or the
other -- what did the name matter?, they were the
same, a figurative apple press crushing the juice out
of the country, leaving but a mash of hopes and
lives. He stood irresolute, while Adelaide Crandall
fought to control her emotions.

The badgering voice of the sheriff sounded again
on his hearing. He crossed the road, pushed open
the grinding iron gate of the fence that enclosed the
Courthouse lawn, and made his way through the
sere, fallen leaves to the steps.

[[288]]

p287 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p288w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p289

v?