k, for Jed was at his devil's work, and only evil could come to the
one who discovered him at it. He had scooped out a pile of sand from
under the edge of the biggest rock, and was filling half a dozen grimy
leather flasks from a jug which he had pulled from the hole. And then
he paused to drink. They could hear the liquor gurgling down his throat.

Nada tapped the end of her stick against the rock, and like a shot the
man whirled about to face them. His face turned livid when he saw who
it was, and he drew himself up until he stood on his feet, his two big
fists clenched, his yellow teeth snarling at her.

"You damned--spy!" he cried chokingly. "If you was a man--I'd kill you!"

The girl did not shrink. Her face did not whiten. Two bright spots
flamed in her cheeks, and Hawkins saw the triumph shining in her eyes.
And there was a new thing in the odd twist of her red lips, as she said
tauntingly.

"If I was a man, Jed Hawkins--you'd run!"

He took a step toward her.

"You'd run," she repeated, meeting him squarely, and taking a tighter
grip of her stick. "I ain't ever seen you hit anything but a woman, an'
a girl, or some poor animal that didn't dare bite back. You're a
coward, Jed Hawkins, a low-down, sneakin,' whiskey-sellin' coward--and
you oughta die!"

Even Peter sensed the cataclysmic change that had come in this moment
between the two big rocks. It held something in the air, like the
impending crash of dynamite, or the falling down of the world. He
forgot himself, and looked up at his mistress, a wonderful, slim little
thing standing there at last unafraid before the future--and in his dog
heart and soul a part of the truth came to him, and he planted his big
feet squarely in front of Jed Hawkins, and snarled at him as he had
never snarled before in his life.

And the bootlegger, for a moment, was stunned, For a while back he had
humored the girl a little, to hold her in peace and without suspicion
until Mooney was able to turn over her body-money. After that--after he
had delivered her to the other's shack--it would all be up to Mooney,
he figured. And this was what had come of his peace-loving efforts! She
was taking advantage of him, defying him, spying upon him--the brat he
had fed and brought up for ten years! Her beauty as she stood there did
not hold him back. It was punishment she needed, a beating, a
hair-pulling, until there was no breath left in her impudent body. He
sprang forward, and Peter