There was infinite scorn in her voice.
“No, it’s Steptoe Service, or nothin’.”
Kenset thought a moment.
“Who’s the Coroner?” he asked presently.
“Jim Banner,” she answered quickly, “as straight a man as ever lived. Brave, too. He’s been shot at more’n once fer takin’ exception to some raw piece o’ work in this Valley, fer pokin’ his nose in, so to speak. Jim Last used to say he was th’ only man at the Seat, which is Corvan, you know, of course.”
“Tom Nord. Keen as a razor an’ married to Courtrey’s sister. Now do you see why this is th’ law?” She, too, tapped the gun.
Kenset frowned and looked down along the green range. He thought of the unpainted pine building in Corvan which was the Court House. A strange personnel, truly, to invest it with authortity!
“I see,” he said briefly, “but there must be some way out. This is not the right way, the way that must come and last.”
Tharon’s lips drew into the thin line that made them like her father’s. “It’s th’ law that’s here,” she said and there was an instant coldness in her voice, “an’ it’s th’ law that’ll last until Courtrey or I go down.”