jail for talking that way."
She pressed her aunt's shoulder affectionately. "Don't you mind a
word she says, Aunt Phoebe. She's just a mischief-making old hag, and
she--oh, I'd like to beat her!"

Hagar shook her head violently, and her voice rose shrill and malicious,
cutting short Evadna's futile defiance.

"Ka-a-ay bueno, yo'!" Her teeth gnashed together upon the words. "I no
tellum lie. Good Injun him kill Man-that-coughs. All time I seeum creep,
creep, through sagebrush. All time I seeum hoss wait where much rock
grow. I seeum. I no speakum heap lie. Speakum true. I go tell sheriff
mans Good Indian killum Man-that-coughs. I tellum--"

"Why didn't you, then, when the sheriff was in Hartley?" Evadna flung at
her angrily. "Because you know it's a lie. That's why."

"Yo' thinkum Good Injun love yo', mebbyso." Hagar's witch-grin was at
its malevolent widest. Her black eyes sparkled with venom. "Yo' heap
fool. Good Injun go all time Squaw-talk-far-off. Speakum glad word. Good
Injun ka-a-ay bueno. Love Squaw-talk-far-off. No love yo'. Speakum lies,
yo'. Makum yo' heap cry all time. Makeum yo' heart bad." She cackled,
and leered with vile significance toward the girl in the doorway.

"Don't you listen to her, honey." It was Phoebe's turn to reassure.

Good Indian took a step forward, his face white with rage. Viney saw him
first, muttered an Indian word of warning, and the three sprang up and
backed away from his approach.

"So you've got to call me a murderer!" he cried, advancing threateningly
upon Hagar. "And even that doesn't satisfy you. You--"

Evadna rushed up the steps like a crisp little whirlwind, and caught his
arm tightly in her two hands.

"Grant! We don't believe a word of it. You couldn't do a thing like
that. Don't we KNOW? Don't pay any attention to her. We aren't going to.
It'll hurt her worse than any kind of punishment we could give her. Oh,
she's a VILE old thing! Too vile for words! Aunt Phoebe and I shouldn't
belittle ourselves by even listening to her. SHE can't do any harm
unless we let it bother us--what she says. _I_ know you never could take
a human life, Grant. It's foolish even to speak of such a thing. It's
just her nasty, lying tongue saying what her black old heart wishes
could be true." She was speaking in a torrent of trepidation lest he
break from her and do some violence which they would all regret. She
did not know what he could do, or would do, but the look of his face
frigh