d by its halo of bright hair. She stole another look at him from
beneath her dark lashes.

"Three years, Betty?" he prompted.

"Bruce, don't stare at me that way, it makes me forget what I was going
to say! When you come, back--next year--" and then she lifted her eyes
to his and he saw that they were full of sudden tears. "Bruce, don't go
away--don't go away at all--"

Carrington slipped from the saddle and stood at her side.

"Do you mean that, Betty?" he asked. He took her hands loosely in his
and relentlessly considered her crimsoned face. "I reckon it will always
be right hard to refuse you anything--here is one settler the Purchase
will never get!" and he laughed softly.

"It was the Purchase--you were going there!" she cried.

"No, I wasn't, Betty; that notion died its natural death long ago. When
we are sure you will be safe at Belle Plain with just the Cavendishes,
I am going into Raleigh to wait as best I can until spring." He spoke so
gravely, that she asked in quick alarm.

"And then, Bruce--what?"

"And then--Oh, Betty, I'm starving--" All in a moment he lifted her
slender figure in his arms, gathering her close to him. "And then,
this--and this--and this, sweetheart--and more--and--oh, Betty! Betty!"

When Murrell was brought to trial his lawyers were able to produce a
host of witnesses whose sworn testimony showed that so simple a thing as
perjury had no terrors for them. His fight for liberty was waged in and
out of court with incredible bitterness, and, as judge and jury were
only human, the outlaw escaped with the relatively light sentence of
twelve years' imprisonment; he died, however, before the expiration of
his term.

The judge, where he returned to Raleigh, resumed his own name of
Turberville, and he allowed it to be known that he would not be offended
by the prefix of General. During his absence he had accumulated a wealth
of evidence of undoubted authenticity, with the result that his claim
against the Fentress estate was sustained by the courts, and when
The Oaks with its stock and slaves was offered for sale, he, as the
principal creditor, was able to buy it in.

One of his first acts after taking possession of the property was to
have Mahaffy reinterred in the grove of oaks below his bedroom windows,
and he marked the spot with a great square of granite. The judge,
visibly shaken by his emotions, saw the massive boulder go into place.

"Harsh and rugged like the nature of him w