"I suppose I'll be called on to go and get him?" "I'm afraid we'll
have to ask you to do that." "What caused the change of heart? I
thought Purvy's people didn't want it done." It was Callomb's first
allusion, except for his apology, to their former altercation.
For an instant only, Smithers was a little confused.
"To be quite frank with you, Callomb," he said, "I got to thinking
over the matter in the light of your own viewpoint, and, after due
deliberation, I came to see that to the State at large it might bear
the same appearance. So, I had the Grand Jury take the matter up. We
must stamp out such lawlessness as Samson South stands for. He is the
more dangerous because he has brains."
Callomb nodded, but, at noon, he slipped out on a pretense of sight-
seeing, and rode by a somewhat circuitous route to the ridge. At
nightfall, he came to the house of the clan head.
"South," he said to Samson, when he had led him aside, "they didn't
want to hear what you had to tell the Grand Jury, but they are going
ahead to indict you on manufactured evidence."
Samson was for a moment thoughtful, then he nodded.
"That's about what I was expecting."
"Now," went on Callomb, "we understand each other. We are working for
the same end, and, by God! I've had one experience in making arrests at
the order of that Court. I don't want it to happen again."
"I suppose," said Samson, "you know that while I am entirely willing
to face any fair court of justice, I don't propose to walk into a
packed jury, whose only object is to get me where I can be made way
with. Callomb, I hope we won't have to fight each other. What do you
suggest?"
"If the Court orders the militia to make an arrest, the militia has no
option. In the long run, resistance would only alienate the sympathy of
the world at large. There is just one thing to be done, South. It's a
thing I don't like to suggest, and a thing which, if we were not
fighting the devil with fire, it would be traitorous for me to
suggest." He paused, then added emphatically: "When my detail arrives
here, which will probably be in three or four days, you must not be
here. You must not be in any place where we can find you."