“You’ll be ruined and defrocked before Sunday, Tom.

You have no authority left in this town.”

“Has the stay order been stamped into your log yet, Mrs.

Gable?” I asked.

Mrs.

Gable looked up at the regulator clock on the wall behind her desk.

The brass pendulum swung left, then right, as the black hands came together at five o’clock.

“No stay order has come into my log today,” Mrs.