The Marrow of Tradition

Mr. Delamere visits Sandy in jail. Sandy willingly explains that he had seen someone else wearing his clothes; however, he is reluctant to explain where he got the gold and purse. Mr. Delamere realizes there is something suspicious about this obfuscation. Sandy endeavors to emphasize his loyalty and gratitude to the Delamere family for freeing his father from slavery and saving Sandy himself from a stray bullet. Likewise, Mr. Delamere thanks Sandy for saving baby Tom when he was kidnapped. Sandy will still not reveal the source of the gold, and states that he is ready to die. Mr. Delamere instructs the sheriff to guard his prisoner, telling him “[t}here should be no force too strong for an honest man […] to resist” (136). 

Mr. Delamere visits Major Carteret to assert Sandy’s innocence. His protests fall on deaf ears. He tells Major Carteret that it is embarrassing when white men, “heirs of civilization” (138), debase themselves by “howling like red Indians around a human being […] roasting at the stake” (138). When Mr. Delamere expresses once again that he would as soon believe that his own grandson had committed the crime, Major Carteret tells him about Tom’s expulsion from the Clarendon Club.