“You said he was backing you.”
“I said he thought I was doing a good thing. I expected you to think that, too.”
Chase flushed uncomfortably. “Ordinarily, I would say so. If you’d done this without prompting from him, I would say so. But it’s significant that you didn’t; that you waited till he came home, and talked to you, and then gave your orders.”
“I’d been thinking about it for a long time.”
“But you didn’t act without word from him, Wint. That’s why I—regret it.”
Wint asked harshly: “Listen! Do I get this straight? You’d have me let them go on selling whisky in Hardiston just for fear I am helping Amos by stopping them?”
“I don’t like to see you letting Amos use you.”
“Aside from that, isn’t it a good thing to clean up the town, no matter what the motive?”
“You’ll find in your law books somewhere the statement that the motive determines the deed,” Chase told him.
“Don’t you think it important to clean up Hardiston?”