Jerry stared with a craned neck at Alexander McGivins until slowly his
body came round to an easier posture, but upon his steady and unmoving
fixity of eye, the rest of him moved as upon an axis. Into the
gray-blue irises came a live kindling and with seeming unconsciousness
of those about him, he said solemnly, "Afore God, I aims ter wed with
thet gal!"

Alexander had strolled outward along a bluff, leaving the town at her
back, because she wanted to think without interruption. In her home
over yonder across the broken ridges her father might be lying, anxiety
ridden--or he might be already dead. An obsession of haste spurred her
with the roweling of suspense and with the companionship of her
troubled thoughts she walked on and on.

When at length she turned she had decided certain matters, and in the
growing dusk she met a man who smilingly accosted her and halted in her
path. It was Jase Mallows and she confronted him with a high head and,
in remembrance of his swaggering impertinence, spoke imperiously.

"I don't want ter hev no speech with ye, Jase, now ner never, but I
owes ye wages fer ther wuck ye done on them rafts. Come ter ther bank
termorrer at openin' time and I'll pay ye off."

The mountaineer's face fell into a scowl of resentment. To be rebuffed
was galling enough. To be relegated to a servile status was
unendurable, yet he refashioned his expression at once into a smile.

"Thar hain't no tormentin' haste, Alexander," he assured her evenly.
"Any time'll do--any time at all, but I'm leavin' town ternight."

"Suit yerself," she answered with calculated curtness and would have
gone on but he fell into step with her and dropped his voice into so
earnest a _timbre_ that despite her dislike for him she listened.

"Alexander--hit hain't none of my business--an' I knows ye're mad at me
but yore paw an' me dwells neighbors--an' I'm goin' ter forewarn ye
about somethin'."

"Alright," the voice was frigid. "Go ahead. Everybody's forewarnin'
me right now."

"I've done heered thet this Brent party air a mighty slick customer.
Don't give him no undue lee-way ter fleece ye. Ther man Halloway,
thet's hangin' around him's a pretty desperate sort too, by ther repute
folks gives him. When ye settled up accounts with thet outfit, ye
kain't skeercely be too heedful. I'd either make 'em give me cash
money--or else hev a lawyer 'round ter see thet everythin's alright."

"My paw," declared the girl indi