“No, it wouldn’t, Hannah.  It would be honest killing.  For when a cussed villain hunts down and destroys an innocent girl, he ought to be counted an outlaw that any man may slay who finds him.  And if so be he don’t get his death from the first comer, he ought to be sure of getting it from the girl’s nearest male relation or next friend.  And if every such scoundrel knew he was sure to die for his crime, and the law would hold his slayer guiltless, there would be a deal less sin and misery in this world.  As for me, Hannah, I feel it to be my solemn duty to Nora, to womankind, and to the world, to seek out the wretch as wronged her and kill him where I find him, just as I would a rattlesnake as had bit my child.”

“They would hang you for it, Reuben!” shuddered Hannah.

“Then they’d do very wrong!  But they’d not hang me, Hannah!  Thank Heaven, in these here parts we all vally our women’s innocence a deal higher than we do our lives, or even our honor.  And if a man is right to kill another in defense of his own life, he is doubly right to do so in defense of woman’s honor.  And judges and juries know it, too, and feel it, as has been often proved.  But anyways, whether or no,” said Reuben Gray, with the dogged persistence for which men of his class are often noted, “I want to find that man to give him his dues.”

“And be hung for it,” said Hannah curtly.

“No, my dear, I don’t want to be hung for the fellow.  Indeed, to tell the truth, I shouldn’t like it at all; I know I shouldn’t beforehand; but at the same time I mustn’t shrink from doing of my duty first, and suffering for it afterwards, if necessary!  So now for the rascal’s name, Hannah!”

“Reuben Gray, I couldn’t tell you if I would, and I wouldn’t tell you if I could!  What! do you think that I, a Christian woman, am going to send you in your blind, brutal vengeance to commit the greatest crime you possibly could commit?”

“Crime, Hannah! why, it is a holy duty!”

“Duty, Reuben!  Do you live in the middle of the nineteenth century, in a Christian land, and have you been going to church all your life, and hearing the gospel of peace preached to this end?”

“Yes!  For the Lord himself is a God of vengeance.  He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah by fire, and once He destroyed the whole world by water!”

“‘The devil can quote Scripture for his purpose,’ Reuben! and I think he is prompting you now!  What! do you, a mortal, take upon yourself the divine right of punishing sin by death?  Reuben, when from the dust of the earth you can make a man, and breathe into his nostrils the breath of life, then perhaps you may talk of punishing sin with death.  You cannot even make the smallest gnat or worm live!  How then could you dare to stop the sacred breath of life in a man!” said Hannah.

“I don’t consider the life of a wretch who has destroyed an innocent girl sacred by any means,” persisted Reuben.