Fentress seemed to hesitate; but the judge's glance, compelling and insistent, demanded an answer.
"Ten years." "You have known many men of all classes as a lawyer and a planter ?" said the judge.

Fentress inclined his head.

The judge took a step nearer him.

"People have a great trick of coming and going in these western states--all sorts of damned riffraff drift in and out of these new lands." A deadly earnestness lifted the judge's words above mere rudeness.

Fentress, cold and distant, made no reply.