eries of water-falls that flashed through tall ferns, blossoming laurel
and shining leaves of rhododendron. Once he heard something move below
him and then the crackling of brush sounded far to one side of the
road. He knew it was a man who would be watching him from a covert and,
straightway, to prove his innocence of any hostile or secret purpose, he
began to whistle. Farther below, two men with Winchesters rose from
the bushes and asked his name and his business. He told both readily.
Everybody, it seemed, was prepared for hostilities and, though the news
of the patched-up peace had spread, it was plain that the factions were
still suspicious and on guard. Then the loneliness almost of Lonesome
Cove itself set in. For miles he saw nothing alive but an occasional
bird and heard no sound but of running water or rustling leaf. At the
mouth of the creek his horse's lameness had grown so much better that
he mounted him and rode slowly up the river. Within an hour he could
see the still crest of the Lonesome Pine. At the mouth of a creek a
mile farther on was an old gristmill with its water-wheel asleep, and
whittling at the door outside was the old miller, Uncle Billy Beams,
who, when he heard the coming of the black horse's feet, looked up and
showed no surprise at all when he saw Hale.

"I heard you was comin'," he shouted, hailing him cheerily by name.
"Ain't fishin' this time!"

"No," said Hale, "not this time."

"Well, git down and rest a spell. June'll be here in a minute an' you
can ride back with her. I reckon you air goin' that a-way."

"June!"

"Shore! My, but she'll be glad to see ye! She's always talkin' about ye.
You told her you was comin' back an' ever'body told her you wasn't: but
that leetle gal al'ays said she KNOWED you was, because you SAID you
was. She's growed some--an' if she ain't purty, well I'd tell a man! You
jes' tie yo' hoss up thar behind the mill so she can't see it, an' git
inside the mill when she comes round that bend thar. My, but hit'll be a
surprise fer her."

The old man chuckled so cheerily that Hale, to humour him, hitched his
horse to a sapling, came back and sat in the door of the mill. The old
man knew all about the trouble in town the day before.

"I want to give ye a leetle advice. Keep yo' mouth plum' shut about this
here war. I'm Jestice of the Peace, but that's the only way I've kept
outen of it fer thirty years; an' hit's the only way you can keep outen
it."

"Tha