““ 'But - again - to conclude,' Nilssen said. 'After the whore is throattled, after the digger's rage is spent. Surely the civil law then returns to condemn this man? Surely he's punished justly - in the end?' 'Not if his fellows rally round him, to preserve his digger's rights,' Shepard replied. 'No man holds to any code as strong as he does when his code's affronted, Mr. Nilssen, and there's nothing more brutal than a gang of angry men. I've been a gaoler sixteen years.””
