posure somewhat repaired, she dipped a cool
and dripping gourdful, walked swiftly through the front room and stood
abruptly before Creed, presenting it with almost no word of greeting,
only the customary, "Would ye have a fresh drink?"

"Thank you," said Creed taking the gourd from her hand and lifting his
eyes to her face. He needed no prompting now; his own heart spoke very
clearly; he knew as he looked at her that she was all the world to
him--and that he was utterly lost and cut off from her.

Jephthah, on the porch, and those unseen eyes within, watched the two
curiously, while Creed drank from the gourd, emptied out what water
remained, and returned it to Judith, and she all the while regarded him
with a burning gaze, finally bursting out:

"What do you want to see Wade about? Is it--is it Huldy?"

"Yes, Miss Judith, it's Huldah," Creed assented quietly.

"I don't know as its worth while talkin' to Wade about that thar gal,"
put in Jephthah meditatively. "She sorter sidled off last night and left
the place, and I think he feels kinder pestered and mad like. My boys is
all mighty peaceful in their dispositions, but it ain't the best to talk
to any man when he's had that which riles him."

"Whar is Huldy Spiller?" demanded Judith standing straight and tall
before the visitor, disdaining the indirection of her uncle's methods.
"Is she over at you-all's?"

"That's what I wanted to talk to Wade about," returned Creed evasively.
"Huldah's a good girl, and I'm sorry if he thinks--I'd hate to be the one
that----"

For a moment Judith stared at him with incredulous anger, then she
wheeled sharply, went into the house and shut the door. Creed turned
appealingly to the older man. He had great faith in Jephthah Turrentine's
good sense and cool judgment. But the young justice showed in many ways
less comprehension of these, his own people, than an outsider born and
bred. Jephthah Turrentine was no longer to be reckoned with as a man--he
was the head of a tribe, and that tribe was at war.

"I don't know as that thar gal is worth namin' at this time," he
vouchsafed, almost plaintively. "Ef she had taken Jim Cal's Iley 'long
with her, I could fergive the both of 'em and wish ye joy. As it is,
she's neither here nor thar. Ef you had nothin' better to name to my son
Wade, mebbe we'd as well talk of the craps, and about Steve Massengale
settin' out to run for the Legislature."

Creed stood up, and in so doing let the litt