orm straightened and she stood up. Fire came into the old,
old eyes that regarded Dick so intently.

"Aye," she said, "you speak the truth, grandson. It is Paul Cotter's own
face. A gentle man he was, but brave, and the greatest scholar. I should
have known that when Henry Ware's great-grandson came Paul Cotter's,
too, would come soon. I am proud for this house to have sheltered you
both."

She put both her hands on his shoulders, and stood up very straight,
her face close to his. She was a tall woman, above the average height of
man, and her eyes were on a level with Dick's.

"It is true," she said, "it is he over again. The eyes are his, and the
mouth and the nose are the same. This house is yours while you choose
to remain, and my grandchildren and my great-grandson will do for you
whatever you wish."

Dick noticed that her grammar and intonation were perfect. Many of the
Virginians and Marylanders who emigrated to Kentucky in that far-off
border time were people of cultivation and refinement.

After these words of welcome she turned from him, sat down in her chair
and gazed steadily into the coals. Everything about her seemed to float
away. Doubtless her thoughts ran on those dim early days, when the
Indians lurked in the canebrake and only the great borderers stood
between the settlers and sure death.

Dick began to gather from the old woman's words a dim idea of what had
occurred. Harry Kenton must have passed there, and as they went into
the next room where food and coffee were placed before them, Jarvis
explained.

"Your cousin, Harry Kenton, came through here last spring on his way to
Virginia," he said. "He came with me an' this lunkhead, Ike, all the
way from Frankfort and mostly up the Kentucky River. Grandmother was
dreaming and she took him at first for Henry Ware, his very self. She
saluted him and called him the great governor. It was a wonderful thing
to see, and it made me feel just a little bit creepy for a second or
two. Mebbe you an' your cousin, Harry Kenton, are Henry Ware an' Paul
Cotter, their very selves come back to earth. It looks curious that both
of you should wander to this little place hid deep in the mountains. But
it's happened all the same. I s'pose you've just been moved 'round that
way by the Supreme Power that's bigger than all of us, an' that shifts
us about to suit plans made long ago. But how I'm runnin' on! Fall to,
friends--I can't call you strangers, an' eat an' drink.