“I’m going myself.  I’ve found out that he came here from Denver.”

“And from where before that?”

“I don’t know, but I’ll keep on travelling till I get what I want.”

“That’s right, my boy,” exclaimed the other, heartily, “It may be a long trip, but ye’re all the little man has to depend on.  Did ye notice the Tocsin didn’t even give him the credit fer givin’ himself up?”

“Yes,” said Joe.  “It’s part of their game.”

“Did it strike ye now,” Mr. Sheehan asked, earnestly, leaning forward in his chair,—­“did it strike ye that the Tocsin was aimin’ more to do Happy harm because of you than himself?”

“Yes.”  Joe looked sadly out of the window.  “I’ve thought that over, and it seemed possible that I might do Happy more good by giving his case to some other lawyer.”

“No, sir!” exclaimed the proprietor of Beaver Beach, loudly.  “They’ve begun their attack; they’re bound to keep it up, and they’d manage to turn it to the discredit of both of ye.  Besides, Happy wouldn’t have no other lawyer; he’d ruther be hung with you fightin’ fer him than be cleared by anybody else.  I b’lieve it,—­on my soul I do!  But look here,” he went on, leaning still farther forward; “I want to know if it struck ye that this morning the Tocsin attacked ye in a way that was somehow vi’lenter than ever before?”

“Yes,” replied Joe, “because it was aimed to strike where it would most count.”

“It ain’t only that,” said the other, excitedly.  “It ain’t only that!  I want ye to listen.  Now see here:  the Tocsin is Pike, and the town is Pike—­ I mean the town ye naturally belonged to.  Ain’t it?”

“In a way, I suppose—­yes.”

“In a way!” echoed the other, scornfully.  “Ye know it is!  Even as a boy Pike disliked ye and hated the kind of a boy ye was.  Ye wasn’t respectable and he was!  Ye wasn’t rich and he was!  Ye had a grin on yer face when ye’d meet him on the street.”  The red-bearded man broke off at a gesture from Joe and exclaimed sharply:  “Don’t deny it! I know what ye was like!  Ye wasn’t impudent, but ye looked at him as if ye saw through him.  Now listen and I’ll lead ye somewhere!  Ye run with riffraff, naggers, and even”—­Mr. Sheehan lifted a forefinger solemnly and shook it at his auditor—­“and even with the Irish!  Now I ask ye this:  ye’ve had one part of Canaan with ye from the start, my part, that is; but the other’s against ye; that part’s Pike, and it’s the rulin’ part—­”

“Yes, Mike,” said Joe, wearily.  “In the spirit of things.  I know.”

“No, sir,” cried the other.  “That’s the trouble:  ye don’t know.  There’s more in Canaan than ye’ve understood.  Listen to this:  Why was the Tocsin’s attack harder this morning than ever before?  On yer soul didn’t it sound so bitter that it sounded desprit?  Now why?  It looked to me as if it had started to ruin ye, this time fer good and all!  Why?  What have ye had to do with Martin Pike lately?  Has the old wolf got to injure ye?” Mr. Sheehan’s voice rose and his eyes gleamed under bushy brows.  “Think,” he finished.  “What’s happened lately to make him bite so hard?”