The suit had gone against Peterkin, and it was in a towering rage that he stood in the long depot, denouncing everybody, and swearing he would sell out Lubbertoo and every dumbed thing he owned in Shannondale and take his money away, ’and then see how they’d git along without his capital to boost ’em.’  At Harold he would not even look, for his testimony had been the most damaging of all, and he frowned savagely when on entering the car he saw his son in the same seat with him, talking in low, earnest tones, while Harold was evidently listening to him with interest.  Small as he was and mean in personal appearance, there was more of true manhood in Billy’s finger than in his father’s whole body.  The suit had been a pain and trouble to Billy, from beginning to end, for he knew his father was in the wrong, and he bore no malice toward Harold for his part in it, and when the diamonds came up, and his father was clamoring for a writ, he was the first to declare Harold’s innocence and to say he would go his bail.  Now, there was in his mind another plan by which to benefit his friend, and rival, too—­for Billy knew he was that; and the heart of the little man ached with a bitter pain and sense of loss whenever he thought of Jerrie, and lived over again the scene under the butternut tree by the river, when her blue eyes had smiled so kindly upon him and her hands had touched his, even while she was breaking his heart.  When Billy reached his majority his father had given him $100,000, and thus he had business of his own to transact, and a part of this was just now centered in Washington Territory, where, in Tacoma, on Puget Sound, he owned real estate and had dealings with several parties.  To attend to this an agent was needed for a while, and he said to himself;

’I’ll offer it to Hal, with such a salary that he cannot refuse it; that will get him out of the way until this thing blows over.’

Billy knew perfectly well that although everybody said Harold was innocent and that nine-tenths believed it, there would still be a few in Shannondale—­the scum whose opinions his father’s money controlled—­who, without exactly saying they doubted him, would make it unpleasant for him in many ways; and from this he would save him by sending him to Tacoma at once, and thus getting him out of the way of any unpleasantness which might arise from his father’s persecutions or those of his clan.  It was this which he was proposing to Harold, who at once thought favorably of it—­not because he wished to escape from the public, he said, but because of the pay offered, and which seemed to him far more than his services would be worth.

‘You are a noble fellow, Billy,’ he said.  ’I’ll think of the plan, and let you know after I’ve seen Jerrie and Judge St. Claire.’

‘A-all ri-right; he’ll a-advise you to go,’ Billy said, as they arose to leave the car, followed by Peterkin, who had been engaged in a fierce altercation with Tom, who had accused him of having struck Jerrie, and threatened to have him arrested for assault and battery the moment they reached Shannondale.