"I am going away--with her." Jap's tones were calm. "You can see, Flossy, that it is the only way. I cannot be Mayor of Ellis's town with such a disgrace to shame me. I must give up Isabel and--and the _Herald_." Flossy clung to his arm. "Listen to me, Jap Herron," she cried shrilly. "You shall not do it! You shall not let this horrible old woman drag you down in the dirt." Jap smiled sadly. "What could I do, Flossy? She must be cared for. She has been all over town. Everybody has seen her. They know the truth, that my mother is--what she is." Suddenly he threw himself forward on the case and began to sob, such hard, racking sobs as might tear his very breast. Flossy threw her arms around him and cried aloud. Bill stood in the little private office, looking down upon the snoring woman with a murderous glare. He turned as Tom Granger came noiselessly from the outer office and stood beside him. Grief was in Granger's face. "I heard what Jap said just now," he whispered, "and he is right. It would be impossible for him to stay with her in the town. She has ruined Jap." "You're a gol-dinged fool," shouted Bill, dragging him across the big office and out of the front door. "Pretty sort of friend you are, anyway. I'll fight you, or a half-dozen like you, if you murmur a word like that to Jap." He whirled as his father ambled up the street, his round face wearing a grin. "What is that greasy smirk for?" demanded Bill. "If you have any business in the _Herald_ office, spit it out." "I knowed it would come out sooner or later," spluttered Bowers, shifting his position to avoid a pool in the pavement, left by the recent rain. "With half an eye, anybody could see the mongrel streak in----" He stopped as his son advanced swiftly toward him. "What kind of a streak?" he threatened. "I dare you to say that again, and hitch anybody's name to it." "Why, William," expostulated his father, "you shorely ain't goin' to have Jap and his mammy hitched up to the _Herald_? Barton 'll ride Bloomtown proper." "It will give Jones a whack at the _Herald_," suggested Granger mildly. "And it will be his last whack!" foamed Bill. "For I'll finish him and his filthy paper before I go to the pen for burning down the _Herald_ office. The day that Jap Herron leaves the _Herald_, there will be the hell-firedest bonfire that Bloomtown ever saw!" His eyes were blazing. "Get away from here," he cried fiercely, "you--you milksop friends!" He stopped as Isabel, her eyes swollen from crying, crossed the street. She had come across the corner of the park, and her face was white and drawn. Bill stepped up into the doorway and awaited her. "I want to speak to Jap," she said, as he barred the passage.