way to the outer fringes
of the gathering, and when he had escaped immediate observation, he
went with hot haste. Kinnard must know of this.

He had detected an undernote in that general murmur of astonishment,
which was clearly one of satisfaction. The Stacys had derived pleasure
in this ocular proof that Bear Cat was not dead.

As the preacher said "Amen" Bear Cat bent tensely forward and caught
both of Blossom's hands in his own. "I kain't tarry," he said, "even
fer a leetle spell, but I wanted ye ter know thet I done my best ter
get hyar afore."

She looked at him with dazed eyes which under the intensity of his gaze
slowly began to awaken into understanding.

Turner went on eagerly, "I started over hyar as soon as I got yore
letter, but I was set upon an' wounded. I've been insensible well nigh
ever sence then."

"Oh, Turney!" she whispered, as the grief which had held her in its
thrall of unrelieved apathy suddenly broke into an overflow of tears.
"Oh, Turney, I'm glad ye _tried_. He kept callin' fer ye. 'Peared like
he wanted to tell ye somethin'." The clods were falling dully on the
grave.

The crowd held back, fretting against the edict of decorum, as the
voices rose in the miserable treble of song, to which two hounds added
their anguished howls. At the last words of the verse, an instant
clamor of question and discussion broke in eager storm--but Bear Cat
had melted into the thicket at his back. With the same mystifying
suddenness that had characterized his appearance, he had now
disappeared.

Excited men rushed hither and thither, calling his name. They beat the
woods and tramped the roads, but with as little result as though he
had, in fact, appeared out of his grave and returned again to its
hiding.

The story of that funeral was going with the pervasive swiftness of
wind throughout the country-side. It was being mouthed over in dark
cabins where toothless grannies and white-shocked grandsires wagged
their heads and recalled the manner of Bear Cat's birth.

* * * * *

When Joe Sanders had left Bear Cat that afternoon at the abandoned
cabin, it had been with the impression that Stacy meant to take the
path which he had advised; the only path that was not certainly closed
to his escape, and seek refuge at Dog Tate's house. He had found an
immediate opportunity to report that program to Dog himself, and Dog
sought to make use of it in Bear Cat's service.