What he might have been if better born, or if schooled in an atmosphere of moral and intellectual integrity, is an idle speculation.

He was what his inheritance and his life had made him.

He was not without impulses for good.

The pitiful, hunted creature, creeping so wearily along the trail, awoke in this man of the accepted culture of his day a feeling of compassion, and aroused in him a desire to offer assistance.

For the legal aspect of the case, James Rutlidge had all the indifference of his kind, who imbibe contempt for law with their mother's milk.