y Lon, and ye never told me, Flea, and that's why ye been so
unhappy! He'll take ye away because yer his kid, and Brother Horace
can't do anything."

"Yes, he can, Fluke--yes, he can! He loves me, and I love him, and he's
going to marry me! Nobody can't take a wife away from her man!... Fluke,
don't wabble like that! Brother Horace! Brother Horace!"

Fledra's voice reached the dreaming man, bending over his desk, and he
bounded to answer her call. He found her supporting her brother, white
and shivering, with eyes strained by fright.

"I told him," gasped Fledra looking up; "but I didn't mean to."

"Told him what?"

"Pappy Lon," muttered Floyd, "comin' for Flea!"

Horace caught the words in dismay.

He placed the suffering boy on the divan and bent close. In low tones
he said that the squatter in some mysterious way had found where they
were, and that he had come for them. He began at the beginning,
explaining to the boy Lon's demand upon him. He refrained, however, from
mentioning Everett, because of the pain to his sister. He had just
finished the story, when Ann softly opened the door and came in.

"But I insist that you will place your faith in me, Floyd. I shall see
to it that neither you nor your sister leave me--unless you go of your
own free will," Horace concluded.

"If Pappy Lon takes one of us," muttered Floyd, as Miss Shellington
calmed him with sweet interest, "let him take me. I'm as good as dead,
anyhow. I want Flea to marry Brother Horace."

"And so she will," assured Ann. "Now then, Dear, try and sleep."

During the rest of the afternoon Ann held conferences with her brother,
fluttering back and forth from him to Floyd, and then to Fledra. She
noted that the strained expression had gone from the girl's face, and
uttered a little prayer of thanksgiving when she heard Horace's hearty
laugh ring out once more.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Everett Brimbecomb took the letter Lon Cronk handed him, without rising
from his chair.

"It be for Flea," said Lon, grinning, "and I think she'll understand it.
It's as plain as that nose on yer face, Mister."

"May I read it?" asked the lawyer indifferently. Then, as Lon nodded, he
slipped the letter deftly from the finger-marked envelop and read the
contents with a smile. "It's strong enough," he said, replacing it. "I,
too, think she'll succumb to that. If you'll leave this letter with me,
I'll see that she gets it."

Everett put the envelop in a