d didn't aim ter come? Thet would mean bargains, wouldn't
hit?"

Jerry Henderson laughed aloud.

"Do you mean that you suspect me of such a mission?"

Glancing about to assure himself that no one heard except his single
auditor, the erstwhile hirer of assassins bent over his saddle pommel.
Into the suavity of his voice had crept a new hardness and into the
pale color of his eyes an ominous glint.

"Back in ther days of ther war with England, Mr. Henderson, I've heered
tell thet our grandsires hed a flag with a rattlesnake on hit, an' ther
words, 'Don't tread on me!' Some folks says we're right-smart like our
grandsires back hyar in ther timber."

"If that's a threat, Mr. Towers," said Henderson steadily, "I make it a
point never to understand them."

"An' I makes hit a point never ter give them more then onct. I don't
say I suspicions ye--but I do _p'intedly_ say this ter ye: Whatever
yore real project air, afore ye goes inter hit too deep--afore ye
invests all ye've got, an' all yore mother hes got an' all yore sister
hes got, hit mout be right heedful ter ride over ter my dwellin'-house
an' hev speech with me."

An indignant retort rose to Jerry's lips, but with diplomatic
forbearance he repressed it.

"When I've been here a while, I guess your suspicions will be allayed
without verbal assurances, Mr. Towers."

"Even if ye only comes preachin' ther drivin' out of licker," said
Towers slowly, "ye're treadin' on my friends. We suffers Sabbath talk
like thet from preachers, but we don't relish hit on week-days from
strangers. In thar a while back I listened. I seen ye an' Brother
Fulkerson a-stirrin' up an' onsettlin' ther young folks. I kin feel
ther restless things thet's a-ridin' in ther wind ter-night, Mr.
Henderson, an' hit hain't sca'cely right ter bring trouble on these
folks thet's shelterin' ye."

Bear Cat Stacy, unseen but eagerly listening, felt a leaping of
resentment in his veins. All the feudal instincts that had their
currents there woke to wrath as he heard his hereditary enemy warning
away his guest. It was the intolerable affront of a hint that the power
of the Stacys had dwindled and waned until it could no longer secure
the protection of its own roof-trees.

With the anger of Marmion for Angus, sternly repressed but forceful,
Bear Cat suddenly stood out revealed in the moonlight. He had only to
take a step, but the effect was precisely that of having been suddenly
materialized out of no