asized
by his real admiration for those who could stand fast by a
determination. She had always dared. He had always adored, but never
risked a danger.

Down by the deep fishing-hole the willows were beginning to droop their
long yellow leaves on the diminishing stream, and the stepping-stones
stood out bare and bleaching above the thin current that slipped away
between them. A little blue smoke was filtering out from the stove-pipe
behind the shack hidden among the bushes. Everything lay still under the
sunshine of late summer.

"You keep the car. I'm going in," Jerry declared, halting in the thin
shade by the deep hole.

"I think I'd better go, too," Joe insisted.

"I think not," Jerry said, with a finality in her tone there was no
refuting.

York Macpherson had well said that there was no duplicate for Jerry, no
forecasting just what she would do next.

As Jerry's form cast a shadow across his doorway old Fishing Teddy
turned with a start from a bowl of corn-meal dough that he was stirring.
The little structure was a rude domicile, fitted to the master of it in
all its features. On a plain unpainted table Jerry saw a roll of bills
weighted down by an old cob pipe. A few coins were neatly stacked beside
them, with a pearl-handled knife and button-hook lying farther away.

"I came for my money," Jerry said, quietly. "It's all I have until I can
earn some myself."

The old man's fuzzy brown cheeks seemed to grow darker, as if his blush
was of a color with the rest of his make-up. He shuffled quickly to the
table, gathered up all the money, and, coming nearer, silently laid it
in Jerry's hands.

The girl looked at him curiously. It was as if he were handing her a
handkerchief she had dropped, and she caught herself saying:

"Thank you. But what made you take it? Don't you know it is all I have,
and I must earn my living, too, just like anybody else?"

Old Fishing Teddy opened his mouth twice before his voice would act. "I
didn't take it. I was goin' to fetch it up to you soon as I could git up
there again," he squeaked out at last.

Jerry sat down on a broken chair and stared at him, as he seated himself
on the table, gripping the edge on either side with his scaly brown
hands, and gazed down at the floor of the cabin.

"If you didn't take it, why did you have it here? I saw you last night
on Macpherson's driveway," Jerry said, wondering, meanwhile, why she
should argue with an old thieving fellow like F