"They are human, are they not? They have instincts of curiosity
like the rest of us. How can I be made sure that they won't yield
to the temptation of their position and climb the fences they are
detailed to guard?"

"And would this be so fatal to your peace, judge?" A smile
tempered the suggestion.

"It would be a breach of trust which would greatly disturb me. I
want nobody on my grounds, nobody at all. Has not my long life of
solitude within these walls sufficiently proved this? I want to
feel that these men of yours would no more climb my fence than
they would burst into my house without a warrant."

Judge, I will be one of the men. You can trust me."

"Thank you, sergeant; I appreciate the favour. I shall rest now as
quietly as any man can who has met with a great loss. The
coroner's inquiry has decided that the injuries which Bela
received in the street were of a fatal character and would have
killed him within an hour, even if he had not exhausted his
strength in the effort he made to return to his home and die in my
presence. But I shall always suffer from regret that I was not in
a condition to receive his last sigh. He was a man in a thousand.
One seldom sees his like among white or black."

"He was a very powerfully built man. It took a sixty horse-power
racing machine, going at a high rate of speed, to kill him."

A spasm of grief or unavailing regret crossed the judge's face as