"Roger came back. His stepsister got into trouble and died, leaving
little David. Roger took him and raised him in memory of the son he
knew he might have had. When he found Cynthia was married he had that
stone put in the cemetery. He explained the idea to me.
"'The girl, Cynthia, was mine and I killed her. She is dead and it is
to the memory of her sweetness that I have erected that stone. The
woman, Cynthia, is another man's wife.'
"So that, then, is the history of that trunk. The thing, John, that is
killing little Jim Tumley is the thing that worried your grandmother to
death, nearly broke your mother's heart and certainly embittered her
youth, that sent your grandfather into exile and made a widow of me.
It robbed Roger Allan of the only woman he could love.
"Since that day a great many of us have learned to fight it. And there
are now any number of men in Green Valley who are opposed to it and who
even vote the prohibition ticket. But Green Valley is still far from
understanding that until the weakest among us is protected none of us
are safe.
"Some day perhaps the women will cease worrying. But before that day
comes many here will pay the price. And it is usually the innocent who
pay. Now let's put these memories back before they tucker me out
completely.
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