all miss ye when ye're gone, but thet hain't
no reason fer takin' ye no further offen yore course."

Then for the first time Halloway said anything that might have been
construed as a compliment to the girl and he disarmed it of too great
significance with a quizzical smile.

"I reckon, Alexander, thar hain't nothin' better then a good man--an'
ye've done proved yoreself one--but afore God thar's a mighty
outstandin' woman wasted when ye does hit."

Alexander flushed. Perhaps the germ of the awakening that Halloway had
predicted was already stirring into unrecognized life, but she was
ashamed of the blush and in order to cover it made a retort which was
not by any stretch of the imagination a compliment.

"Thar's gals aplenty, Jack"--the people of the hills fall very
naturally into the use of the first name--"A feller like you mout find
hisself one ef he tried hard enough--an' I'll give ye some mighty good
counsel, because atter all I was _borned_ female an' I knows thet much
erbout 'em."

"Wa'al?" Halloway smiled inquiringly, and the girl went on.

"Ye won't nuver make no headway with none of 'em whilst ye goes round
lookin' es bristly an' es dirty es a razor-back hog thet's done been
wallowin' in ther mire. Ef ye ever got clean once hit mout be right
diff'rent."

The big fellow roared with laughter as he turned to Brent.

"Kin ye beat thet now, Mr. Brent? Kin ye figger me in a b'iled shirt,
with a citified shave an' perfume on me a-settin' out sparkin'."

None of the rest knew why Brent laughed so hard. He was trying to
picture the expression that would have come to Alexander's face had she
seen Jack Halloway as he himself had seen him, groomed to perfection,
with pretty heads turning in theater foyer and at restaurant tables, to
gaze at his clean chisseled features and god-like physique.

Bud had little to say and after the parting the girl traveled in a
greater silence than before. Both were thinking of the time, now
drawing near, when they should reach the house of Aaron McGivins and
learn whether or not it was a house of death. Both too were thinking
of the man who had turned back, but their thoughts there were widely
different.

Then they came to the road that ran by the big house, and before they
had reached it Joe McGivins, who sighted them from afar came to meet
them. When Alexander saw her brother she found suddenly that she could
not walk. She halted and stood there with her knees weak u