s the smoking monster rushing into
the valley and sending echoing shrieks through the hills--but there was
no booted stranger and no horse issuing from the covert of maple where
the path disappeared. A long time she stood there, with a wandering look
of farewell to every familiar thing before her, but not a tear came now.
Only as she turned away at last her breast heaved and fell with one long
breath--that was all. Passing the Pine slowly, she stopped and turned
back to it, unclasping the necklace from her throat. With trembling
fingers she detached from it the little luck-piece that Hale had given
her--the tear of a fairy that had turned into a tiny cross of stone
when a strange messenger brought to the Virginia valley the story of the
crucifixion. The penknife was still in her pocket, and, opening it, she
went behind the Pine and dug a niche as high and as deep as she
could toward its soft old heart. In there she thrust the tiny symbol,
whispering:

"I want all the luck you could ever give me, little cross--for HIM."
Then she pulled the fibres down to cover it from sight and, crossing her
hands over the opening, she put her forehead against them and touched
her lips to the tree.

[Illustration: Keep it Safe Old Pine, Frontispiece]

"Keep it safe, old Pine." Then she lifted her face--looking upward
along its trunk to the blue sky. "And bless him, dear God, and guard him
evermore." She clutched her heart as she turned, and she was clutching
it when she passed into the shadows below, leaving the old Pine to
whisper, when he passed, her love.

* * * * * * *

Next day the word went round to the clan that the Tollivers would start
in a body one week later for the West. At daybreak, that morning, Uncle
Billy and his wife mounted the old gray horse and rode up the river to
say good-by. They found the cabin in Lonesome Cove deserted. Many things
were left piled in the porch; the Tollivers had left apparently in a
great hurry and the two old people were much mystified. Not until noon
did they learn what the matter was. Only the night before a Tolliver
had shot a Falin and the Falins had gathered to get revenge on Judd that
night. The warning word had been brought to Lonesome Cove by Loretta
Tolliver, and it had come straight from young Buck Falin himself. So
June and old Judd and Bub had fled in the night. At that hour they were
on their way to the railroad--old Judd at the head of his clan--hi