Excerpt from The Devil to Pay IT was a long day that - the longest in many a year - but it came to an end at last, and night settled over the little city - Night, with her power to illumine, to show us what we are! In the morning hours the course of technical jus tice had taken its way unimpeded, but very shortly after the human life was sacrificed, the counter currents had set in. There was never any question of George Roan's guilt - not that. What they questioned, even when the day was young, was their right to take the life of a fellow creature. It had been long since a man was hanged in that State - so long, by reason of mistrials, appeals, petitions for executive clemency, and what not, that a certain element had begun to feel the law should either boldly vindicate its right to punish capitally, or waive it altogether. And so, it had come about that yesterday, when George Roan's white-faced wife paced those streets with a petition for clemency, few were found to sign it. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.