way to
Richmond?" she asked.

"Not until October. When I do I'll go see the little old house you used
to live in, Vinie!"

"It's torn down," remarked Vinie soberly. "Here's Tom now, and--and--"

"Adam Gaudylock. Don't you remember Adam?"

The hunter and Tom Mocket came up together. "We beat them! we beat them,
hey, Lewis!" grinned the scamp; and Gaudylock cried, "Why, if here isn't
the little partridge again! Don't you want to see what I've got in my
pouch?"

"Yeth, thir," said Vinie.

Rand and his lieutenant talked together in a low voice, Mocket leaning
against black Selim's neck, Rand stooping a little, and with
earnestness laying down the law of the case. They talked for ten
minutes, and then Rand gathered up the reins, asked for another cup of
water, and with a friendly "Good-bye, Vinie!" rode off toward
Monticello, Adam Gaudylock going with him.

Brother and sister watched the riders down the road until the gathering
dark and the shadow of the trees by the creek hid them from sight. "Just
wait long enough and we'll see what we see," quoth Tom. "Lewis Rand's
going to be a great man!"

"How great?" asked Vinie. "Not as great as Mr. Jefferson?"

"I don't know," the scamp answered sturdily. "He might be. One thing's
certain, anyhow; he's not built like Mr. Madison or Mr. Monroe. He'll
not be content to travel the President's road always. He'll have a road
all his own." The scamp's imagination, not usually lively, bestirred
itself under the influence of the day, of wine, and the still audible
sound of horses' hoofs. "By George, Vinie! it will be a Roman road,
hard, paved, and fit for triumphs! He thinks it won't, but he's
mistaken. He doesn't see himself!"

Vinie took the pitcher from beneath the white phlox. "It's getting dark.
Tom, aren't we ever going to have that gate mended?--He's going away to
Richmond in October."

The successful candidate and Adam Gaudylock, followed by Joab on a great
bay horse, crossed Moore's Creek, and took the Monticello road. A red
light yet burned in the west, but the trees were dark along the way, and
the hollows filled with shadow. The dew was falling, the evening dank
and charged with perfume.

"I asked you to come with me," said Rand, "because I wanted to talk to
some one out of the old life. Mocket's out of the old life too, he and
Vinie. But--" he laughed. "They're afraid of me. Vinie calls me 'thir.'"

"Well, I'm not afraid of you," Adam said placidly. "No one at