CHAPTER XXVIII

THE JUDGE MEETS THE SITUATION

The judge’s and Mr. Mahaffy’s celebration of the former’s rehabilitated credit had occupied the shank of the evening, the small hours of the night, and that part of the succeeding day which the southwest described as soon in the morning; and as the stone jug, in which were garnered the spoils of the highly confidential but entirely misleading conversation which the judge had held with Mr. Pegloe after his return from Belle Plain, lost in weight, it might have been observed that he and Mr. Mahaffy seemed to gain in that nice sense of equity which should form the basis of all human relations.  The judge watched Mr. Mahaffy, and Mr. Mahaffy watched the judge, each trustfully placing the regulation of his private conduct in the hands of his friend, as the one most likely to be affected by the rectitude of his acts.

Probably so extensive a consumption of Mr. Pegloe’s corn whisky had never been accomplished with greater highmindedness.  They honorably split the last glass, the judge scorning to set up any technical claim to it as his exclusive property; then he stared at Mahaffy, while Mahaffy, dark-visaged and forbidding, stared back at him.

The judge sighed deeply.  He took up the jug and inverted it.  A stray drop or so fell languidly into his glass.

“Try squeezing it, Price,” said Mahaffy.

The judge shook the jug, it gave forth an empty sound, and he sighed again; he attempted to peer into it, closing one watery eye as he tilted it toward the light.

“I wonder no Yankee has ever thought to invent a jug with a glass bottom,” he observed.

“What for?” asked Mahaffy.

“You astonish me, Solomon,” exclaimed the judge.  “Coming as you do from that section which invented the wooden nutmeg, and an eight-day clock that has been known to run as much as four or five hours at a stretch.  I am aware the Yankees are an ingenious people; I wonder none of ’em ever thought of a jug with a glass bottom, so that when a body holds it up to the light he can see at a glance whether it is empty or not.  Do you reckon Pegloe has sufficient confidence to fill the jug again for us?”

But Mahaffy’s expression indicated no great confidence in Mr. Pegloe’s confidence.

“Credit,” began the judge, “is proverbially shy; still it may sometimes be increased, like the muscles of the body and the mental faculties, by judicious use.  I’ve always regarded Pegloe as a cheap mind.  I hope I have done him an injustice.”  He put on his hat, and tucking the jug under his arm, went from the house.

Ten or fifteen minutes elapsed.  Mahaffy considered this a good sign, it didn’t take long to say no, he reflected.  Another ten or fifteen elapsed.  Mahaffy lost heart.  Then there came a hasty step beyond the door, it was thrown violently open, and the judge precipitated himself into the room.  A glance showed Mahaffy that he was laboring under intense excitement.