[Illustration: HE TURNED TOWARD HER AND LOOKED LONG UPON THE FACE THAT HAD BECOME HIS STAR] UNDER THE LAW BY EDWINA STANTON BABCOCK Frontispiece by RALPH P. COLEMAN THE PENN PUBLISHING COMPANY PHILADELPHIA 1923 COPYRIGHT 1922 BY THE PENN PUBLISHING COMPANY [Illustration] Under the Law Made in the U. S. A. _Inscribed to the Sards, Mingas and Dunstans of this age_ "But if ye be led of the Spirit ye are not under the law." --GALATIANS 5:18. Contents I. ACTION 7 II. UNDER THE LAW 15 III. BY-LAWS 19 IV. OTHER LAWS 26 V. FOR LIFE 32 VI. MINGA'S LAWS 43 VII. THE ORGAN BUILDER'S HOUSE 55 VIII. TRAITS 64 IX. WHOOPING IT UP 79 X. THE EXPEDITION 92 XI. TERMS 108 XII. THE MAN ON THE PLACE 120 XIII. PEARS AND POETRY 131 XIV. PINK PEARLS 147 XV. REVELATIONS 159 XVI. SOPHISTICATION 175 XVII. A GOOD NAME 194 XVIII. THE TAWNY TROOP METHOD 210 XIX. OLD LETTERS 233 XX. EXPLOSIVE DUST 249 XXI. AUTHORITY 267 XXII. SUSPICION 285 XXIII. THE PERCEPTIONS OF MINGA 305 XXIV. "TERRY!" 321 XXV. THE MEDE AND THE PERSIAN 326 XXVI. PENALTIES 335 XXVII. THE JUDGE IS IMPRESSED 347 Under the Law CHAPTER I ACTION The streets between Willow Roads and the little town of Morris on the Hudson were still corrugated with March thaw. But the sun shone warmly and there was the wet smell of oncoming spring in the air. Women flung open their coats at the neck; children skipped lightly to school. The river took on an ethereal light that to the shadmen meant the time when their soggy boats would be moored to the long lines of stakes near the channel. The country highways were less hopeless with mud, and the spring tramp began appearing at back doors. A girl, driving her car rather absently through the unimaginative streets of Morris, stopped suddenly at sight of a ring of loafers gathered by the curb in a side street, jeering mildly and apparently baiting a tumbled heap of something in the gutter. What was it? A dog? A child? Sard Bogart, her brown eyes alert, sprang from her car and went over to see.