"when
the eye of man is a-lookin' t'other way." The left side of the Red Fox's
face twitched into the faintest shadow of a snarl, but, shaking his
head, he kept still.

"Well," said Sam Barth, who was thin and long and sandy, "I don't keer
what them fellers do on t'other side o' the mountain, but what air they
a-comin' over here fer?"

Old Judd spoke again.

"To give you a job, if you wasn't too durned lazy to work."

"Yes," said the other man, who was dark, swarthy and whose black
eyebrows met across the bridge of his nose--"and that damned Hale, who's
a-tearin' up Hellfire here in the cove." The old man lifted his eyes.
Young Dave's face wore a sudden malignant sympathy which made June
clench her hands a little more tightly.

"What about him? You must have been over to the Gap lately--like Dave
thar--did you git board in the calaboose?" It was a random thrust, but
it was accurate and it went home, and there was silence for a while.
Presently old Judd went on:

"Taxes hain't goin' to be raised, and if they are, folks will be better
able to pay 'em. Them police-fellers at the Gap don't bother nobody if
he behaves himself. This war will start when it does start, an' as for
Hale, he's as square an' clever a feller as I've ever seed. His word is
just as good as his bond. I'm a-goin' to sell him this land. It'll be
his'n, an' he can do what he wants to with it. I'm his friend, and I'm
goin' to stay his friend as long as he goes on as he's goin' now,
an' I'm not goin' to see him bothered as long as he tends to his own
business."

The words fell slowly and the weight of them rested heavily on all
except on June. Her fingers loosened and she smiled.

The Red Fox rose, shaking his head.

"All right, Judd Tolliver," he said warningly.

"Come in and git something to eat, Red."

"No," he said, "I'll be gittin' along"--and he went, still shaking his
head.

The table was covered with an oil-cloth spotted with drippings from a
candle. The plates and cups were thick and the spoons were of pewter.
The bread was soggy and the bacon was thick and floating in grease. The
men ate and the women served, as in ancient days. They gobbled their
food like wolves, and when they drank their coffee, the noise they made
was painful to June's ears. There were no napkins and when her father
pushed his chair back, he wiped his dripping mouth with the back of
his sleeve. And Loretta and the step-mother--they, too, ate with their
knives