ever mean her fer Jake, an' I guess she knows it. But she's
plumb scared, anyways."

Tresler contemplated the speaker earnestly in the moonlight. He
marveled at the quaint outward form of the chivalrous spirit within.
He was trying to reconcile the antagonistic natures of which this
strange little bundle of humanity was made up. For ten years Joe had
put up with the bullying and physical brutality of Jake Harnach, so
that, in however small a way, he might help to make easy the rough
life-path of a lonely girl. And his motives were all unselfish. A
latent chivalry held him which no depths of drunkenness could drown.
He leant over and held out his hand.

"Joe," he said, "I want to shake hands with you and call you my
friend."

The choreman held back for a moment in some confusion. Then, as though
moved by sudden impulse, he gripped the hand so cordially offered.

"But I ain't done yet," he said a moment later. He had no wish to
advertise his own good deeds. He was pleading for another. Some one
who could not plead for herself. His tone had assumed a roughness
hardly in keeping with the gentle, reflective manner in which he had
talked of his "flower." "Tresler," he went on, "y're good stuff, but
y' ain't good 'nough to dust that gal's boots, no--not by a sight.
Meanin' no offense. But she needs the help o' some one as'll dig at
them weeds standin'. See? Which means you. I can't tell you all I
know, I can't tell you all I've seed. One o' them things--I guess on'y
one--is that Jake's goin' to best blind hulks an' force him into
givin' him his daughter in marriage, and Gawd help that pore gal. But
I swar to Gawd ef I'm pollutin' this airth on the day as sees Jake
worritin' Miss Dianny, I'll perf'rate him till y' can't tell his
dog-gone carkis from a parlor cinder-sifter."

"Tell me how I can help, and count me in to the limit," said Tresler,
catching, in his eagerness, something of the other's manner of
expression.

It was evident by the way the choreman's face lit up at his friend's
words that he had hoped for such support, but feared that he should
not get it. Joe Nelson was distinctly worldly wise, but with a heart
of gold deep down beneath his wisdom. He had made no mistake in this
man whose sympathies he had succeeded in enlisting. He fully
understood that he was dealing with just a plain, honest man,
otherwise he would have kept silence.

"Wal, I guess ther' ain't a deal to tell." The little man looked
straigh