night--I tell you that!"

Lon sat down and smoked moodily on his pipe. After a few minutes'
thought he said:

"Ye can sleep in that back room where ye put the dorg, Flea, and if
there's a key in the lock ye can turn it. You come up to the deck with
me, Lem."

With a dark scowl, the scowman followed the squatter upstairs. He had
reckoned that the hour to take Flea was near; but Lon's heavy hand held
him back. When they were standing side by side in the darkness of the
barge-deck, Cronk spoke.

"Lem," he said, "I told ye before that Flea ain't like Flukey. She'd
just as soon throw herself into that water as she'd look at ye. She
ain't afraid of nothin' but you, and ye've got to keep yer hands offen
her till I git her foul, do ye hear?"

"Ye ain't keepin' me away just fer the sake of that high-toned
Brimbecomb pup, be ye, Lon?"

"Nope. I'd rather you'd have her, Lem, 'cause ye'll beat her and make
her wish a hundred times a day that she'd drowned herself. I say, if ye
let me fix this thing, ye'll come out on the top of the heap. If ye
don't, she'll raise a fuss, and, if that damned governor gets wind of
it, he might catch on that the kid be his. He'd run us both down afore
ye could say jackrabbit. Ye let Flea alone till I say ye can have her."

"If yer dealin' fair--"

The squatter interrupted his companion with an angry growl.

"Have I ever cheated ye out of any money?"

"Nope," answered Lem.

"Then I won't cheat ye out of no girl; fer I love a five-cent piece
better'n Flea any time. Now, shet up, and we'll go down to sleep!"

* * * * *

Fledra fled into the back room, and, closing the door quickly, slipped
the bolt. She glanced about the cabin, which through the candlelight
looked dirty and miserably mean. But it was a haven of escape from Lem,
and she welcomed it. A large can of tobacco was on a wooden box. Fledra
knew this belonged to the canalman and that he would come after it. She
picked it up, and, opening the door, shoved it far into the other room.
She could bear Lon's muttering voice on the deck above, and the swish of
the water as the tug pulled the scow along. Once more she carefully
locked the cabin door, and then, with a sob, dropped to her knees,
burying her face in the coarse blanket that covered the bunk. Long and
wildly she wept, her sobs frequently stopping the utterance of an
attempted prayer. Finally her exhaustion overcame her, and she fell into
a troub