"Well," continued the man, "there can be no other way, If it were turned over to me in my official capacity what good would it do? My bondsmen would be responsible for it. I would then have it to account for, and what difference, in God's name, can it make whether I am sent to the penitentiary for stealing money which I have already used, or for stealing this money? It all belongs to the county. It is two times six one way, and six times two the other way."
"Sir," said Mason, "I retract my former statement in regard to your strong point. Let me insist that you devote your time to prophecy. Your reasoning is atrocious."
"I am wasting my time here," muttered the Virginian, "there is no way out of it."
Randolph Mason turned upon the man. "Are you afraid of courts?" he growled.
"No," said the southerner, "I am afraid of nothing but the penitentiary."
"Then," said Mason, leaning over on the table, "listen to me, and you will never see the shadow of it."
IV.
I suppose you are right about that," said Jacob Wade, the newly elected sheriff of Gullmore county, as he and Colonel Moseby Allen sat in the office of that shrewd and courteous official. "I suppose it makes no difference which one of us takes this money and pays the contractors,—we are both under good bonds, you know."