“Judge Kingsley, you need a guardian and I have appointed myself one,” I told him, and I was mighty resolute, for I had determined to brace up to him with all the power in me. “You have no right to kill yourself, and you’re not going to kill yourself, by gad! not if I have to camp with you day and night till you get back your nerve. I’m going to take you straight to your folks and tell ’em you’re out of your head temporarily and will have to be taken to a hospital!”
That brought him out of his numbness, and I knew it would. I believe he would have struck me if his arms had been free. But I needed to have him in another mood than the fighting one. I hit him hard.
“You’re an embezzler!” I cracked out. “How much?” He crumpled, and I let him slide down and sit on the ground, his back against the tree. It was the first time he had ever had that word put to him from man’s mouth, even though he may have confessed to himself in his heart.
“Judge Kingsley,” I said, bravely, knowing that I had an advantage from then on, “I’m only a young man and I know you don’t think much of me. But I’m going to grab in on this thing, whether you want me to or not. I have special reasons of my own. I’ll do everything I can to balk my uncle.”
“You’re a spy he has set on me!”
“You’re a liar!” I wasn’t going to take any of his sneers or his abuse. I hated to talk to him as I did, but only by being coarse and rough and bossy could I hope to pound anything helpful into him.
He stared up at me with his jaw hanging down and I did not let up on my punches.
“I have tried to head off my uncle Deck. I have told him straight out that I am for you and against him. He and I don’t speak to each other. I have promised your wife and your daughter that I’ll do everything I can to beat my uncle out in this thing. They don’t understand it! I don’t understand it all. But, before God, my promise to them is holy, even if you do not believe in me! I’m in this affair and I’m in to stay.”
He began to wag his head as he had done before that day. “Brace up, Judge Kingsley! You’re not licked yet!”
“Those three selectmen have signed my death-warrant. That notice which has been posted!”