"
"They swear by the Squire out there," said Mr Horace
Williams, liberally applying his napkin to his moustache.
"He treated some of them more than square when the fall
wheat failed three years running, about ten years back;
do you remember, Mr Murchison? Lent them money at about
half the bank rate, and wasn't in an awful sweat about
getting it in at that either."
"And wasn't there something about his rebuilding the
school-house at his own expense not so long ago?" asked
Dr Drummond.
"Just what he did. I wanted to send Rawlins out and make
a story of it--we'd have given it a column, with full
heads; but the old man didn't like it. It's hard to know
what some people will like. But it was my own foolishness
for asking. A thing like that is public property."
"There's a good deal of feeling," said Lorne. "So much
that I understand the bank is moving for change of venue."
"I hope they won't get it," said Dr Drummond sharply. "A
strong local feeling is valuable evidence in a case like
this. I don't half approve this notion that a community
can't manage its own justice when it happens to take an
interest in the case. I've no more acquaintance with
the Squire than 'How d'ye do?' and I don't know his son
from Adam; but I'd serve on the jury tomorrow if the
Crown asked it, and there's many more like me.
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