This remark was followed by silence. Cavanaugh broke it with a slowly released sigh. "I may as well tell you what I did," he faltered.
"You can't tell me anything I don't know already," John quickly interposed. "Remember, Sam, that I told you last night—"
"I know, but I wasn't satisfied to let it rest there. I'm not satisfied yet to—to let it rest even where it is now. I'm not done with it by a long shot. I—I'm going back up there in—in a few days. I've got to look deeper into the law dealing with such extraordinary cases as—"
"The law?" John leaned back in his chair in a swift gesture of contempt. "What the hell has the law got to do with it, Sam? Law, I say, law! Did you ever hear of any justice dealt out by the law? Don't talk law to me. Tell me, man to man, what you did up there."
"What I did? Why, my boy"—Cavanaugh was floundering about in search for a word, a phrase with which to meet the blunt attack on his resources—"I did all I could think to do."
"Well, out with it, Sam. I know it went against me. There is no use beating about the bush. You saw Tilly, and she said—"
"Oh no, I didn't see her, my boy!" The contractor leaned eagerly upon the denial, small as it was. "I tried to, but it was impossible. She is housed up at home like a prisoner. John, Whaley is in a dangerous mood. I was advised not to go near the house. I started there anyway, but the sheriff stopped me—gave me orders to stay away. I don't know how to—to make it all plain to you, John. You see, I love Tilly and you so much that—that this thing cuts deep. It has almost knocked out my faith in a just Providence."
John leaned forward; his hands hung between his knees and he clasped them near the floor. He uttered a ghastly laugh meant to show indifference, but which missed its mark. "You are beating about the bush," he said, huskily, and another rasping laugh issued. "Out with it. I'm able to have a tooth pulled. Go ahead. Get it off your chest, old man."
"As I said just now," Cavanaugh began again, "I'm going back to Cranston after—after I get some legal advice down here where there is no public excitement."
"Excitement?" John said. "What do you mean by public excitement?"