.

THE SHOOTING-MATCH AT BOGGS'.
The judge's faith in the reasonableness of mankind having received a staggering blow, there began a somewhat furtive existence for himself, for Solomon Mahaffy, and for the boy.

They kept to little frequented byways, and usually it was the early hours of morning, or the cool of late afternoons when they took the road.
The heat of silent middays found them lounging beside shady pools, where the ripple of fretted waters filled the pauses in their talk.

It was then that the judge and Mahaffy exchanged views on literature and politics, on religion and politics, on the public debt and politics, on canals and national roads and more politics.

They could and did honestly differ at great length and with unflagging energy on these vital topics, especially politics, for they were as far apart mentally as they were close together morally.
Mahaffy, morose and embittered, regarded the life they were living as an unmixed hardship.