"I want to see him."
"Who are you?"
"Don't you know me, Hattie Stevens? I am the sheriff," said the speaker boldly, as he, unbidden, entered the house.
"You the sheriff! What can you want here?"
Turning to the men without, he said in an undertone:
"Guard the doors."
The dumfounded mother repeated:
"You the sheriff! What do you want here?"
"I want to see that precious son of yours, widow Stevens, and I trow he will guess the object of my visit."
"My son! Surely he hath done no wrong. He hath broken no law."