But I've got to tell you of a thing that happened a long time ago, before you can understand.

You haven't forgotten--you will never forget--Ben Tatman ?" As Kent spoke the name, a name which Dirty Fingers had heard no lips but his own speak aloud in nearly a quarter of a century, a strange and potent force seemed suddenly to take possession of the forest bencher's huge and flabby body.

It rippled over and through him like an electrical voltaism, making his body rigid, stiffening what had seemed to be fat into muscle, tensing his hands until they knotted themselves slowly into fists.

The wheeze went out of his breath, and it was the voice of another man who answered Kent.
"You have heard--about--Ben Tatman ?" "Yes.

I heard it away up in the Porcupine country.