Coming round to the front, I saw in the distance a portly figure approaching, followed by a thin, dust-coloured wraith of a woman. I slipped behind a tree and waited. Leveson strolled up, bland and imposing. He stood still for a moment, staring intently at the outside of his church now completed. Then, taking a key from his pocket, he opened the vestry door and entered the building, closing the door behind him. I went to meet Mrs. Panel. "Seen Jaspar?" "I haven't." "What's that feller," she always spoke of Leveson as a 'feller,' "doin' in a church?" "It's his church. He built it." "Good Land o' Peter! What's he doin' in it anyway?" "Not praying, I think." "Shush-h-h-h." Mrs. Panel touched my arm, thrusting out her lean face in an attitude of intense attention. I strained my own ears, fairly good ones, but heard nothing. "Jaspar's in there," said his wife. "I hear his voice." She trembled with excitement. Obviously, Jaspar had concealed himself somewhere in the vestry. No time was to be lost. Turning the north-east corner of the building, where the vestry is situated, I crawled under the window, followed by Mrs. Panel. The two men were within a few feet of us. Uncle Jap's slightly high-pitched tones fell sharply upon the silence. "This is a leetle surprise party, ain't it?" he was saying. Leveson answered thickly: "What are you doing here, sir?" Although I risked discovery at an inopportune moment, I could not resist the temptation to raise my eyes level with the sill of the window. So did Uncle Jap's Lily. We both peered in. Uncle Jap was facing Leveson; in his hand he held the long-barrelled six-shooter; in his eyes were tiny pin-point flashes of light such as you see in an opal on a frosty morning. Terror had spread a grim mask upon the other; his complexion was the colour of oatmeal, his pendulous lips were quivering, his huge body seemed of a sudden to be deflated. He might have been an empty gas bag, not a man. "I'm goin' to tell ye that," continued Uncle Jap mildly, "I come here to hev a leetle talk with you. Sinse I've bin in San Lorenzy County two men hev tried to ruin me: one left the county in a hurry; you're the other." "I give you my word of honour, Mr. Panel----" "That's about all _you_ would give, an' it ain't wuth takin'." "Do you mean to kill me?" "Ef I hev to, 't won't keep me awake nights." In my ear I heard his Lily's attenuated whisper: "Nor me neither, if Jaspar ain't caught." And I had thought that solicitude for Jaspar's soul had sent his Lily, hot-foot to prevent the crime of--murder! I learnt something about women then which I shall not forget. "You propose to blackmail me, I suppose?" "Ugly word, that, but it's yours, not mine. I prefer to put it this way. I propose to consecrate this yere church with an act o' justice." "Go on!"