At the news of his death a wave of horror and indignation swept through the valley.

Among the roughs in the village I heard not infrequent hints of lynching; and even among the more conservative element, the general opinion seemed to be that lawful hanging was too honorable a death for the perpetrator of so brutal a crime.
I have never been able to understand the quick and general belief in the boy's guilt, but I have always suspected that the sheriff did not do all in his power to quiet the feeling.

It was to a large extent, however, the past reasserting itself.

Though Radnor's record was not so black as it was painted, still, it was not so white as it should have been.
People shook their heads and repeated stories of how wild he had been as a boy, and how they had always foreseen some such end as this.

Reports of the quarrels with his father were told and retold until they were magnified beyond all recognition.