sure, an old land deal had come
to life, just after the discovery of the worthlessness of the mine
in Lonesome Cove, and was holding out another hope. But if that, too,
should fail--or if it should succeed--what then? Old Judd had sent back,
with a curt refusal, the last "allowance" he forwarded to June and
he knew the old man was himself in straits. So June must stay in the
mountains, and what would become of her? She had gone back to her
mountain garb--would she lapse into her old life and ever again be
content? Yes, she would lapse, but never enough to keep her from being
unhappy all her life, and at that thought he groaned. Thus far he was
responsible and the paramount duty with him had been that she should
have the means to follow the career she had planned for herself outside
of those hills. And now if he had the means, he was helpless. There was
nothing for him to do now but to see that the law had its way with Rufe
Tolliver, and meanwhile he let the reawakened land deal go hang and set
himself the task of finding out who it was that had ambushed old Dave
Tolliver. So even when he was thinking of June his brain was busy on
that mystery, and one night, as he sat brooding, a suspicion flashed
that made him grip his chair with both hands and rise to pace the porch.
Old Dave had been shot at dawn, and the night before the Red Fox had
been absent from the guard and had not turned up until nearly noon next
day. He had told Hale that he was going home. Two days later, Hale heard
by accident that the old man had been seen near the place of the ambush
about sunset of the day before the tragedy, which was on his way home,
and he now learned straightway for himself that the Red Fox had not
been home for a month--which was only one of his ways of mistreating the
patient little old woman in black.

A little later, the Red Fox gave it out that he was trying to ferret out
the murderer himself, and several times he was seen near the place of
ambush, looking, as he said, for evidence. But this did not halt Hale's
suspicions, for he recalled that the night he had spent with the Red
Fox, long ago, the old man had burst out against old Dave and had
quickly covered up his indiscretion with a pious characterization of
himself as a man that kept peace with both factions. And then why had he
been so suspicious and fearful when Hale told him that night that he had
seen him talking with a Falin in town the Court day before, and had he
di