candidates, and the fact that Mr. Pardriff and his wife and his
maid-servant and his hired man travelled on pink mileage books, which
could only be had for love--not money. On the other hand, reputable
witnesses had had it often from Mr. Pardriff that he was a reformer, and
not at all in sympathy with certain practices which undoubtedly existed.

Some years before--to be exact, the year Austen Vane left the law school
--Mr. Pardriff had proposed to exchange the Ripton Record with the editor
of the Pepper County Plainsman in afar Western State. The exchange was
effected, and Mr. Pardriff glanced over the Plainsman regularly once a
week, though I doubt whether the Western editor ever read the Record
after the first copy. One day in June Mr. Pardriff was seated in his
sanctum above Merrill's drug store when his keen green eyes fell upon the
following:--"The Plainsman considers it safe to say that the sympathy of
the people of Pepper County at large is with Mr. Austen Vane, whose
personal difficulty with Jim Blodgett resulted so disastrously for Mr.
Blodgett. The latter gentleman has long made himself obnoxious to local
ranch owners by his persistent disregard of property lines and property,
and it will be recalled that he is at present in hot water with the
energetic Secretary of the Interior for fencing government lands. Vane,
who was recently made manager of Ready Money Ranch, is one of the most
popular young men in the county. He was unwillingly assisted over the
State line by his friends. Although he has never been a citizen of the
State, the Plainsman trusts that he may soon be back and become one of
us. At last report Mr. Blodgett was resting easily."

This article obtained circulation in Ripton, although it was not copied
into the Record out of deference to the feelings of the Honourable Hilary
Vane. In addition to the personal regard Mr. Pardriff professed to have
for the Honourable Hilary, it maybe well to remember that Austen's father