uldn't be nothin' but a blasphemy. _Air_ they
both of one mind?"

Turner stiffened to a ramrod straightness. His hands clenched
themselves into hard fists and his nostrils quivered.

"Brother Fulkerson, ye're a godly man," he declared with suppressed
passion, "an' I hain't never sought ter dispute ye ner defy ye afore
now--but thar hain't no time ter argyfy. Willin'ly or unwillin'ly ye're
a-goin' ter wed them two--right hyar--an' now! He plighted his troth
ter her. He's got a mighty brief chanct ter fulfill his pledge an'
leave her thinkin' she gave her love ter a true man. He's come acrost
hyar, shot like a bob-white--jest fer thet. I've fought off death my
own self ter-night--jest fer thet! Ef God has spared both of us this
long, I reckon He done hit--jest fer thet! I'll answer ter Him at ther
jedgment-seat, ef so be I'm wrong."

For an irresolute moment the father hesitated, then he said briefly,
"Come on."

Turner wheeled, bracing himself for the bitterest ordeal of all. He must
be the spokesman for a rival whom he hated beyond superlatives--and
in order that Blossom might keep her dream, which was all she could now
hope to salvage out of life, he meant to tell a lie which would for all
time enshrine that detestable traitor. None the less, when he had drawn
her aside, he spoke with great gentleness, perjuring himself with
knightly self-effacement.

He took both her hands in his own and looked with a tender
consideration into her forlorn eyes, gulping down the choke that rose
in his throat and threatened his power of speech. Though her gaze was
fixed on his face she seemed hardly to see him, so stiff and
trance-like was her posture and so tight-drawn and expressionless her
features. If he could soften that paralysis of grief it was worth a
self-sacrificing lie.

"Blossom," he began softly, "Mr. Henderson fell inter a murder trap an'
I got thar too late ... ter fotch him out unharmed. Betwixt us we _did_
come through, though, with ther breath still in our bodies ... an' he
made me pledge myself ter git him hyar in time ... ter wed with ye
afore he died."

He saw the eyes widen and soften as if the tight constriction of heart
and nerve had been a little eased. Into them came even a pale hint of
serenity and pride--pride for the splendid vindication of a hero whom
she had tried to believe true and had been compelled to doubt. Even the
bleak dreariness of widowhood could not tarnish that memory: her ideal
inste