Not that I believed he would hesitate for long, law or no law; but Donaldson, the sheriff, refused to be a party to any openly illegal act, and this would for the present tie the fellow's hands.

Not until Miss Eloise was found and duly served with the eviction papers would Donaldson consent to take possession of a single slave.

This might still give me time for action.
Kirby, angry and baffled, could rave and threaten; but to no end.
Whether this condition of affairs had been attained as a result of legal advice, or through a mere accident, made no difference; the present inability to reach the daughter of the Judge--the legal heiress to his estate--completely blocked the conspiracy.

Yet Kirby was not the kind to surrender without a fight, and a desperate one; all that was savagely brutal in the man had been aroused by this check.

The very sound of his voice indicated his intention--he proposed to drive, with a whip if necessary, the helpless girl in his power to a full confession.