THE MAN UNDERNEATH
when I called him a dusty legal imp, he smiled and told Jack that he had hopes of me. I showed signs of becoming a good citizen.
And then Jack went off to Texas again, just in time to prevent him breaking out and assaulting a policeman. Tom and I saw him off at Euston, and Tom's eyes were as moist as dewy morn when the train left the platform. He loved his brother dearly.
"But all the same it's a relief for him to go, and a relief for me," said Tom. "His notions are so extraordinary. He never seems to understand that a man in no circumstances is justified in taking the law into his own hands."
"He lives mostly where the justification lies in the necessity," I said sententiously.
"And thereby makes things worse," said Tom. "The steady appeal to law even where law is weak increases its authority."
"I believe you'd stand to be shot to give the law a good case," I said carelessly. "What's the use of law without a sanction? And in parts of the West every man is his
83
