e shelter.

His cogitations were abruptly interrupted by a dog's excited barking,
subdued by distance, but deep-throated. The sound came from the
direction of the clearing, and, taking up his heavy stick, Jim hobbled
to the road. If Lou had got into any trouble----

The barking turned to growls; horrible, crunching growls which brought
his heart up into his throat as he broke into a run, forgetting his
pain. He had not gained the top of the rise in the road, however, when
the growls gave place to wild yelps and howls which rapidly diminished
in the distance and presently Lou appeared holding carefully before her
something round and white which gleamed in the starlight.

"Good Heavens!" he exclaimed when she neared him. "What on earth have
you been doing?"

"Git on back 'round the other side of the mill!" ordered Lou. "I gotta
go slow or I'll spill it."

"What is it?"

But she vouchsafed him no reply until they reached a ledge of rock over
the tumbling stream, well out of sight of that light on the hill. Then
she set down the object she was carrying and he saw that it was a bright
tin pan, filled almost to the brim with milk.

"I thought it would go good with our bread an' ham," she explained
ingenuously. "I figgered from what I learned at that Hess place that
they'd leave some out in the summer cellar to cream, for they ain't got
any spring-house, an' they won't be likely to miss one pan out of
fifteen. Besides, there's nothin' in them rules you told me that stops
_me_ from beggin' or borrowin', or stealin', either, an' if I
_give_ you some of this you ain't got any call to ask me where it
come from."

This feminine logic left Jim almost speechless, but he managed to gasp
out:

"The dog! Didn't he attack you?"

"I guess that was what he intended, but I put down the pan an' fit him
off." She added, with evident pride. "I never spilled a drop, either!"

"Good Lord!" Jim ejaculated. "I believe you'd do anything once!"

"I b'lieve I would, provided I wanted to," Lou agreed placidly. Then her
tone changed. "There's somebody comin' up the road from Hudsondale like
all in creation was after 'em."

Indeed, the sound of a horse's mad gallop up the steep road by which
they had come was plainly to be heard increasing in volume, and the
grating jar of wheels as though a wagon were being thrown from side to
side.

"Think it's a runaway?" Jim rose and strained his eyes into the darkness
at the farther end of the br