A dying widow calls Paladin to her bedside and in the presence of the last of her three sons, hires him to locate the one who's been missing for years. (Another son, sadly, was lost to a long-ago hunting accident.) A note from a private detective indicates he has located the missing son, but now the detective has vanished as well.
The remaining son has very good reasons for not wanting to find his brother but lacks the moral courage to divulge them to his mother - - or to Paladin, who is at any rate determined to find out what happened to the man he personally knew as a thoroughly professional investigator.
Paladin discovers that his former friend has been brutally murdered in a small town held firmly under the heel of a Land Agent who calls himself "Harper". Harper, a sinister, bad-tempered figure armed with a bull whip is a man who in today's parlance has clearly "gone over to the dark side", hating anyone who does not fear or show absolute willingness to serve him. But his greatest wrath is directed toward the town's Preacher -- a gentle, godly man whose very existence rouses him to fury. When the Preacher, clearly beloved by many townsfolk, starts to deliver a sermon based on the Old Testament story of Cain and Abel, Harper explodes; even Paladin falls victim to his near-homicidal rage.
At the story's end the widow's sole faithful son is forced to reveal what he has hidden all these years, fearing what the Truth will do to his frail mother. Paladin. opening the Preacher's trampled Bible and reading excerpts from both Proverbs and the Book of Isaiah, has the perfect solution to his quandary.
The remaining son has very good reasons for not wanting to find his brother but lacks the moral courage to divulge them to his mother - - or to Paladin, who is at any rate determined to find out what happened to the man he personally knew as a thoroughly professional investigator.
Paladin discovers that his former friend has been brutally murdered in a small town held firmly under the heel of a Land Agent who calls himself "Harper". Harper, a sinister, bad-tempered figure armed with a bull whip is a man who in today's parlance has clearly "gone over to the dark side", hating anyone who does not fear or show absolute willingness to serve him. But his greatest wrath is directed toward the town's Preacher -- a gentle, godly man whose very existence rouses him to fury. When the Preacher, clearly beloved by many townsfolk, starts to deliver a sermon based on the Old Testament story of Cain and Abel, Harper explodes; even Paladin falls victim to his near-homicidal rage.
At the story's end the widow's sole faithful son is forced to reveal what he has hidden all these years, fearing what the Truth will do to his frail mother. Paladin. opening the Preacher's trampled Bible and reading excerpts from both Proverbs and the Book of Isaiah, has the perfect solution to his quandary.
