Nancy persuades the sheriff to arrest Nathan Gombet

Nancy persuades the sheriff to pursue Nathan Gombet by turning a disputed account into an immediate police action. The scene hinges on the gap between what Nancy and the Turnbull sisters know and what the sheriff is willing to do: he accepts that their story is credible but initially refuses to proceed without proof. Nancy’s insistence, and finally the authority he attaches to her family name, changes the scene’s direction. The expedition that follows encounters an armed servant at Gombet’s house, making clear that persuading the sheriff to act is not the same as securing Gombet’s arrest.

The Appeal at the Sheriff’s Office

Nancy arrives at the sheriff’s office with Rosemary Turnbull and Floretta Turnbull. The drive has taken exactly twelve minutes, and the three hurry inside together. The sheriff has been at ease among several men, laughing with his feet resting on a roll-top desk; on seeing the women enter, he puts his feet down and gives them his attention. The contrast between his relaxed posture and Nancy’s urgency sets up the central resistance of the encounter: she is ready to name a culprit and demand action, while he has not yet accepted that the matter requires intervention.

Nancy tells him directly about the strange incidents at the Turnbull home and the discoveries she has made. Rosemary and Floretta corroborate her account at various points, so the case reaches the sheriff not as Nancy’s unsupported suspicion alone but as a shared report from the people affected. Nancy then makes the request unmistakable: she wants him to arrest Nathan Gombet and says that Gombet is guilty. The sisters’ presence gives the allegation witnesses, while Nancy’s decisiveness gives it a proposed next step.

Proof, Doubt, and Persuasion

The sheriff’s first response is hesitant. He says that Gombet is no friend of his and is considered somewhat queer, but that he has never heard of him doing harm. His reluctance rests not on a declared loyalty to Gombet but on the absence, as he sees it, of a demonstrated criminal act. Rosemary answers sharply that everyone has a first time; Nancy reduces her assessment of Gombet to the claim that he is a clever crook and challenges the sheriff to believe them. She adds that they can show him the staircase, offering a concrete feature of their discoveries rather than relying only on their description of the strange events.

The sheriff says that he believes their story, yet insists that belief is not enough: he cannot arrest a man without proof. That distinction leaves Nancy with a practical obstacle even after the women have made their account persuasive. Rosemary presses him on what further proof he wants, but the exchange does not immediately resolve the difference between their confidence and his standard for action. Nancy’s demand and the sheriff’s caution are both explicit; what changes the balance is not a new piece of evidence presented in the office, but a new basis for his trust in the people presenting it.

The Turn to Action

When the sheriff asks about Nancy’s father, she identifies him as Carson Drew. The sheriff then says that, if Carson Drew’s daughter declares Gombet a crook, he will take her word for it. His shift is striking because he has just insisted that arrest requires proof. He does not announce that he has independently verified the charge; instead, he treats Nancy’s connection to Carson Drew as sufficient warrant to act on her judgment. The scene thus makes reputation an operative form of authority, even as the sheriff’s earlier appeal to evidence remains unresolved.

Nancy remarks sarcastically that he has taken plenty of time to make up his mind. Goaded, the sheriff drops his indolent manner, turns to the other men in the room, and calls them to come along. He then tells Nancy to lead the way while the officers follow. Her persuasion has therefore achieved a concrete change: the sheriff and his men leave the office to pursue Gombet, with Nancy directing the route and Rosemary and Floretta accompanying her. Rosemary’s complaint afterward that she could never stand the sheriff, and that he would have mishandled the matter if it had earlier been placed in his hands, registers how little confidence the sisters had in his initiative before this reversal.

The Armed Reception and the Scene’s Limits

The expedition does not immediately reach Gombet. At the house, a deputy quietly reports someone hiding in the kitchen. When the sheriff opens the door, he finds himself facing the muzzle of a sawed-off shotgun held by Gombet’s servant. The discovery turns the attempted entry into an armed confrontation and confirms that Nancy’s warning has brought the officers into a dangerous situation. It does not, however, establish in this moment that Gombet has been captured; the action Nancy has secured is the sheriff’s pursuit, not the completed arrest named in her demand.

The servant’s role also complicates the apparent simplicity of the investigation. Earlier, Carson Drew had entered Gombet’s house intent on reaching Nancy and failed to notice the servant’s significant nod from Gombet or her subsequent locking of the outside door. Nancy later sees the woman washing dishes in the kitchen and recognizes her as the servant Rosemary and Floretta had described; during Nancy’s nighttime approach, the woman searches the cellar with a flashlight after hearing a noise. Now she is positioned at the door with a shotgun. These separate appearances make her more than incidental household staff within the plot: she is repeatedly placed at points where entry, concealment, and discovery are at stake.

The narration frames her through racialized descriptions and an exaggerated written dialect, while associating her with suspicion, criminal partnership, and armed resistance. After she is taken prisoner, Nancy questions her about Gombet and identifies her as both his servant and partner in crime; the woman denies knowing what Nancy means by crime. That exchange extends the encounter beyond the sheriff’s office: Nancy’s confidence in naming the network around Gombet meets the servant’s denial, while the shotgun has already supplied the officers with a forceful obstacle to their entry. The episode’s decisive reversal is therefore institutional but incomplete: Nancy gets the sheriff moving, yet the first confrontation at the house reveals that acting on her accusation will require overcoming resistance as well as persuading authority.