.

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.