them pretty well!'
'I don't think I understand you,' Sean said to him grimly, and Peter
shrugged.
'I'll post my account-but I warn you I'm going to hit you with a big
one. Say, five hundred guineas?'
Sean lay back in his seat and looked up at the little lawyer.
'Say, five hundred,' he agreed.
'Next time you need representation-I recommend a bright youngster name
of Rolle. Humphrey Rolle,' Peter went on.
'You think I'll need a lawyer again?'
'With your boy-you'll need a lawyer, ' Peter told him with certainty.
'And you don't want the job?' Sean leaned forward with sudden
interest. 'At five hundred guineas a throw?'
'Money I can get anywhere.' Peter took the cigar from his mouth and
inspected the fluffy grey ash at its tip. 'Remember the name, Mr.
Courtney-Humphrey Rolle. He's a bright boy and not too choosy.
He walked away down the aisle lugging his heavy briefcase, and Sean
stood up and followed him slowly. Pausing on the steps of the
Courthouse he looked across the square. The centre of a small knot of
men, Dirk stood laughing, with Archy's arm around his shoulder. Archy's
voice carried to where Sean stood.
'Don't let any of you get the idea you can tangle with Dirkie
here-you'll end up with your teeth busted clean out the back of your
head. ' Archy grinned so that the blackened tooth showed. 'I say it
so you can all hear me. Dirkie here is my friend-and I'm proud of
him.
' You alone, thought Sean. He looked at his son and saw how tall he
stood. Shaped like a man-broad in the shoulders with muscle in his
arms, no fat on the belly and long legs dropping away clean from
hips.
But he is only sixteen. He's a child-perhaps there is still time to
prevent him setting hard. Then with truth he knew he was deceiving
himself, and he remembered what a friend had said to him long ago:
'Some grapes grew in the wrong soil, some were diseased before they
went to the press, and others were soiled by a careless vintner-not all
grapes make good wine.
And I am the careless vintner, he thought.
Sean walked across the square. 'You're coming home,' he told Dirk
harshly, knowing as he looked at the lovely face that he no longer
loved his son. The knowledge nauseated him.
'Congratulations, Colonel. I knew we'd win,' Archy Longworthy beamed,
and Sean glanced at him.
'I'll be in my office ten o'clock tomorrow morning. I want to talk to
you! - ' 'Yes, sir!' grinned Archy happily, but he was not grinning
when he left Ladyburg on the following evening's train with a month's
pay in lieu of notice to compensate him.
With the storm of adverse editorial comment raised by Dirk's trial,
Garry Courtney's chances in the coming election increased
significantly. The jingo press spoke darkly of a 'surprise outcome,
which thinking men will welcome as a true assessment of the worth of
