x under the bed in our room." He laughed and winked at her.

"That's the one on t'other side of the settin'-room. Yes--that's
our'n!" And he winked again.

The girl, ghastly white, her great eyes staring like a
sleepwalker's, rose and stood resting one hand on the back of
the chair to steady her.

Jeb drew a cigar from his waistcoat pocket and lighted it.
"Usually," said he, "I take a pipe or a chaw. But this bein' a
weddin' day----"

He laughed and winked again, rose, took her in his arms and
kissed her. She made a feeble gesture of thrusting him away. Her
head reeled, her stomach turned.

She got away as soon as he would release her, crossed the
sitting-room and entered the tiny dingy bedroom. The windows
were down and the bed had not yet been made. The odor was
nauseating--the staleness left by a not too clean sleeper who
abhors fresh air. Susan saw the box under the bed, knelt to draw
it out. But instead she buried her face in her hands, burst into
wild sobs. "Oh, God," she prayed, "stop punishing me. I didn't
mean to do wrong--and I'm sure my mother didn't, either. Stop,
for Thy Son's sake, amen." Now surely she would wake. God must
answer that prayer. She dared not take her palms from her eyes.
Suddenly she felt herself caught from behind. She gave a wild
scream and sprang up.

Jeb was looking at her with eyes that filled her with a fear
more awful than the fear of death. "Don't!" she cried. "Don't!"

"Never mind, hon," said he in a voice that was terrible just
because it was soft. "It's only your husband. My, but you're
purty!" And he seized her. She fought. He crushed her. He kissed
her with great slobbering smacks and gnawed at the flesh of her
neck with teeth that craved to bite.

"Oh, Mr. Ferguson, for pity's sake!" she wailed. Then she opened
her mouth wide as one gasping for breath where there is no air;
and pushing at him with all her strength she vented a series of
maniac shrieks.

CHAPTER X

LATE that afternoon Jeb returned to the house after several
hours of uneasy, aimless pottering about at barn and woodshed.
He stumped and stamped around the kitchen, then in the
sitting-room, finally he mustered the courage to look into the
bedroom, from which he had slunk like a criminal three hours
before. There she lay, apparently in the same position. Her
waxen color and her absolute stillness added fear to his sense
of guilt--a guilt against which he protested, bec