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A WESTERN REDEMPTION
41
NO USE BLUFFING, TOM, SAID THE SHERIFF
the heart as he was, John hardly knew how he got thru the morning. His employer returned from lunch with an evening paper.
" Harris/ ' he called as soon as he entered.
' 'Yes, Mr. Carney?"
His employer pointed to a headline in the paper.
' ' Is that true ? ' ' he asked.
''Why, you see, Mr. Carney "
"Is your boy a thief ?"
John winced before the brutal question.
' ' He is accused of it, ' ' he answered simply.
"Is it true?" asked Carney, harshly.
" He 's young, sir, and he may have been a bit wild. Surely they'll consider his youth."
Carney crossed over to the cash drawe*r,, and began deliberately to count out John's wages.
"For God's sake, sir," said John, "isn't it punishment enough to have one 's heart broken by one 's only son ? Think of my wife, sir, his mother. "We have nothing but this to live on."
"I want none but honest folks in
my office. I know your sort. You would try to shield him. You would lie for him. You even began to equivocate with me."
He handed John the money, which the latter accepted in dumb despair. With bowed head and faltering feet he left the office to face he knew not what further blows.
If John could have seen his wife at that moment it is doubtful whether he would have had the courage to go home. The brief epistle which she held in her hand had struck at her naked heart, not that she cared that she would be without shelter, but on account of her son and husband.
"Dear Madam," it read. "We respectfully ask you to vacate, owing to the bad character of your son.
"Stephens & Lewis."
John found her weeping at the kitchen table, and what he had to tell her did not tend to assuage her grief.
"Never mind, darling," he said manfully thru his tears, "we will go away together and begin life anew. After — after a while Tom will come hack to us."