"Well, Hannah, my dear, you see I didn't want to make a disturbance while the body of that poor girl lay unburied in the house; but now I ask you right up and down who is the wretch as wronged Nora?" demanded the man with a look of sternness Hannah had never seen on his patient face before.
"Why do you wish to know, Reuben?" she inquired in a low voice.
"To kill him."
"Reuben Gray!"
"Well, what's the matter, girl?"
"Would you do murder?"
"Sartainly not, Hannah; but I will kill the villain as wronged Nora wherever I find him, as I would a mad dog."
"It would be the same thing! It would be murder!"
"No, it wouldn't, Hannah. It would be honest killing. For when a cussed villain hunts down and destroys an innocent girl, he ought to be counted an outlaw that any man may slay who finds him. And if so be he don't get his death from the first comer, he ought to be sure of getting it from the girl's nearest male relation or next friend. And if every such scoundrel knew he was sure to die for his crime, and the law would hold his slayer guiltless, there would be a deal less sin and misery in this world. As for me, Hannah, I feel it to be my solemn duty to Nora, to womankind, and to the world, to seek out the wretch as wronged her and kill him where I find him, just as I would a rattlesnake as had bit my child."
"They would hang you for it, Reuben!" shuddered Hannah.