iss Ruby bent her head a little forward, as if under the weight of her
moral obligations.

"Has he joined the church?" inquired Lib in a curious voice.

"He's been going to the union meetings regular with me, and he's stood
up twice for prayers, but I dunno 's they'd take him into the church with
all these stories going about. You'd ought to think of that, too--you
may be standing in the way of saving his soul."

"If his soul was lost, it would be awful hard to find," said Lib
quietly.

Her listener's weak mouth slackened. "Wh-at?" she asked, with a little
stuttering gasp.

"Oh, I dunno. Some things _are_ hard to find when they're lost, you
know."

"And you'll speak up and tell the truth?" The visitor arose, gathering
her flounces about her with one hand.

"If I speak up, I'll tell the truth, you can bet on that," said Lib.

Miss Adair waited an instant, as if for some assurance which Lib did not
vouchsafe. Then she writhed down the walk in her twisted drapery and
disappeared.

Thad Farnham and his father had been cutting down a eucalyptus-tree. The
two men looked small and mean clambering over the felled giant, as if
belonging to some species of destructive insect. The tree in its fall
had bruised the wild growth, and the air was full of oily medicinal
odors. Long strips of curled cinnamon-colored bark strewed the ground.
The father and son confronted each other across the pallid trunk. The
older man's face was leathery-red with anger.

"The story's got around that the kid's yours, anyway," he announced. "I
don't care who started it, but if it's true, you'll make a bee-line for
the widow's and marry the girl. D'you hear?"

Thad dropped his eyes sullenly and made a feint of examining the
crosscut saw.

"I don't go much on family," continued old Farnham, "and I never 'lowed
you'd set anything on fire excepting maybe yourself, but I'm not raising
sneaks and liars, and what little I've got hain't been scraped together
to fatten that kind of stock!"

"Who said I lied?"

"Nobody. But I'm going to take you over to face that girl and see what
she says. If you don't foller peaceable, I'll coax you along with a
hatful of cartridges. I hear you've been whining around the revival
meetings. I never suspected you till I heard that!"

"I don't see why you suspect a feller for lookin' after the salvation"--

"Oh, damn your salvation!" broke in the old man.

"Well, I dunno"--

"Well, I _do_!" roared the father;