Oliver Ostrander. I
might be if there were truth in these charges or any serious
reason for connecting my upright and honourable son with the low
crime of a highwayman. BUT THERE IS NOT. I aver it and so will
this lady here whom you have doubtless recognised for the one who
has stirred this matter up. You can bring no evidence to show
guilt on my son's part,"--these words he directed straight at the
discomfited poster of bills--"BECAUSE THERE IS NO EVIDENCE TO
BRING."
Mr. Black's eyes sparkled with admiration. He could not have used
this method with the lad, but he recognised the insight of the man
who could. Bribes were a sign of weakness, so were suggested force
and counter-attack; but scorn--a calm ignoring of the power of any
one to seriously shake Oliver Ostrander's established position--
that might rouse wrath and bring avowal; certainly it had shaken
the man; he looked much less aggressive and self-confident than
before.
However, though impressed, he was not yet ready to give in.
Shuffling about with his feet but not yet shrinking from an
encounter few men of his stamp would have cared to subject
themselves to, he answered with a remark delivered with a little
more civility than any of his previous ones:
"What you call evidence may not be the same as I calls evidence.
If you're satisfied at thinkin' my word's no good, that's your
business. I know how I should feel if I was Ol Ostrander's father
and knew what I know."
"Let him go," spoke up a wavering voice.
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