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"Well rue Didn&039;t you, Corbetti If I had killedhi his heart by treachery, I&039;d be reduced to a istrate Powers trust you enough to turn his back on youi Or have you learned a bewitching spell from your ladyfriendi"

"If he knoitchcraft," another voice said, "it hasn&039;t done hiht"

"No," ausley answered, "he doesn&039;t knoitchcraft If he did, he&039;d at least make himself into an invisible pest instead of a pest I have to look at every time I venture out into the street Corbett!!"

It had been a deive only by lifting his throbbing brain-pan on its weakened stalk He blinked, trying to focus on ausley&039;s repugnant visage

The heade for boys, he of the jaunty cockatoo and the swollen belly, said with quiet contempt, "I knohat you&039;re about I&039;ve always known When you came back here, I kneould start and I warned you, did I noti Your last night at the orphanagei Have you forgotteni answer otten," Matthew said

"Never plot a war you cannot win Isn&039;t that righti"

Matthew didn&039;t respond He tensed, expecting the boot to conow to his two companions, "decided he didn&039;t approve of rievous attitudes Some of theood for the The churches and the public hospital daily bringing thee over, no one to take responsibility, so as I to do with themi Indians massacred this one&039;s family, or that one was stubborn and would not work, or this one was a young drunkard living in the street What was I to do with theive them some disciplinei and yes, I did take many of them in hand Many of them I had to discipline in the most strict of manners, because they would abide no-"

"Not discipline," Matthew interrupted, gathering strength into his voice His face had reddened, his eyes glistening with anger in their swollen sockets "Your ht make the church elders and the hospital council think twiceabout the charity they give you and thediscipline with sodomyi"

ausley was quiet In this silence, the world and ti suspended

"I&039;ve heard thehts I&039;ve seen them, afterward Soed and you only went after the youngest ones The ones who couldn&039;t fight back" He felt the burn of tears, and even after eight years the impact of this emotion stunned him He pulled in a breath and the next words tu back for theh cracked the dark "Oh ho! Oh ho, round and fighting the air!" He came forward a few steps In the next pull of the pipe and the red wash of cinder-light, Matthe a face upon the ed Michael "Youhonor With your following et under my feet and trip , isn&039;t iti Trying to find out thingsi To spy onIf you had so-beyond your ridiculous suppositions and made-up istrate Woodward uponPowers aed; when he spoke again he sounded like a nettled old woman: "Look what you&039;ve made me step in!"

Then, after aCorbett over here, won&039;t youi"

a hand grabbed Matthew&039;s collar and another took hold of his shirt low on his back He was dragged fast and sure by a man who kne to move a body Matthew tensed and tried to convulse himself, but a knuckled fist-Carver&039;s, he presuh to tell hie

"You have a filthycloser with his odors of cloves and s with your face Mr Bromfield, clean him up for me, please"

"My pleasure," said the man who&039;d seized Matthew, and with diabolical relish he took hold of the back of Matthew&039;s head and thrust his face down into the fly-blown mass of horse manure that ausley&039;s boot had found

Matthew had seen as co There was no way to avoid it He was able to seal his mouth shut and close his eyes, and then his face went into the pile It was, by reason of the analytical part of Matthew&039;s brain that took the cool ly fresh al one&039;s face into a velvet bag Warm, still The stuff was up his nostrils, but the breath was stuck hard in his lungs He didn&039;t fight, even when he felt the sole of a boot press upon the back of his head and his face was jah the wretched excess near down to the cobblestones They wanted hiht, even as the air stuttered in his lungs and his face remained pressed down into the filth under a whoreson&039;s boot He would not fight, so he ht the better on his feet some other day

ausley said, "Pull his, Carver," ausley commanded

The flat of a hand slapped Matthew in the center of his chest The air whooshed out of hisot it on my shirt!"

"Step back then, step back Give him room to smell himself"

Matthew did The stuff was still jammed up his nose It caked his face like swarass, decayed feed, andwell, and stinking ht from the rump He retched and tried to clear his eyes but Bro as a picaroon&039;s rope

ausley gave a short, high, and giddy laugh "Oh, look at hiht even scare the carrion birds aith that face, Corbett!"

Matthew spat and shook his head violently back and forth; unfortunately sootten past his lips

"You can let hio now," ausley said Broave hiain Then, as Matthew struggled up to his knees and rubbed the mess out of his eyes, ausley stood over hiled with boredoain Understandi Mind o so kindly for you" To the others: "Shall we leave the young ob of spit hit his shirt at the left shoulder Carver or Bro after that, the noise of boots striding away ausley said soone

Matthew sat in the street, cleaning his face with his sleeves Sickness bubbled and lurched in his stoer and the burn of sha aboil under the noonday sun His head was still killing hi Then his stomach turned over and out of hiundi he&039;d put down for his supper It ca over a washpot tonight

Finally, after what seeround and think about how to get home His roost on the Broad Way, up over Hiraood twenty-,to be done but to get to doing it; and so he started off, seething and weaving and stinking and being altogether h He would get himself a bath in it, and so cleanse his face and clear his mind

and tomorrowi To be so i Street orphanage, waiting for ausley to appear on his jaunt to the ga dens and so spy on him in hopes ofwhat, exactlyi Or to stay home in his sht: he had absolutely nothing, and was unlikely to get anything at this pace But to give upto give upwas abandoning the the quest that he felt set hiave hiistrate&039;s clerk and a pottery sweeper, he thought as he went along the silent Broad Way Only a young man who held sway over a quill and a broom, and whose mind was tormented by the vision of injustice to the innocent It hat had istrate Woodward-his mentor and almost father, truth be told-to proclaim Rachel Howarth innocent of witchcraft in the town of Fount Royal three years ago Had that decision helped to carry the ailing istrate to his deathi Possibly so It was another torment, like the hot strike of a bullwhip ever endlessly repeating, that lay upon Matthew&039;s soul in every hour lit by sun or candle

He cah at Trinity Church, where Wall Street met the Broad Way Here the sturdy Dutch cobblestones ended and the streets were plain hard-packed English earth as Matthew leaned down into the trough and began to wash his face with dirty water, he aly, and he had none of that to spare

But to, as they saidi What a day s would never change in hi Eben ausley to justice soainst the innocent Somehow, he must; or he feared that if he did not, he would be consumed by this quest, by its futility, and he would wither into slack-jawed acceptance of what could never in his mind be acceptable

at last he was suitable to proceed hoht He still had his life, that was another and so he straightened his shoulders and counted his blessings and went on his way through theman alone