irection of the light, and picked his way along it.
Soon he crossed a primitive bridge and, climbing a little incline,
paused before a dilapidated shanty. He knocked peremptorily on the door;
but only a droning voice humming a monotonous tune made answer. Again
he knocked, this time harder. The singing ceased, and after a shuffling
of feet the door opened.

Standing before him, her hair bedraggled as it had been the first time
he saw her, was the woman who had claimed to be his mother, the woman he
had thrown into Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. Brimbecomb, in his astonishment,
almost fell back into the gulch. But he quickly gathered his scattered
wits and, forcing a face of effrontery, doffed his hat.

"Can you tell me," his agitation did not allow him to speak
calmly,--"can you tell me, please, where Lon Cronk lives?"

Although his question was low and broken, Scraggy caught each word.

"Down to the edge of the lake, Mister," she replied. "It's a goin' to be
a dark night to be out in, ain't it?"

In his relief, Brimbecomb drew a long breath. She had not recognized
him! The dim light of the candle showed him that the same dazed
expression still remained in her faded eyes. The smirk on her face, the
crouch of her emaciated figure, about which the rags swirled in the
wind, the dismal hut, and the loneliness of her surroundings, made such
a picture of woe that Everett shuddered and hastened to get the
information, that he might hurry away from the awful place.

"Is there a scow down there that belongs to--"

"That there scow belongs to Lem Crabbe," broke in Scraggy. "Yep, it
comed in this mornin'. Lem be a good man, a fine man, the bestest man ye
ever see."

Brimbecomb took some money from his pocket and, placing it in her
fingers, hurried away.

* * * * *

Fledra heard Everett when he came to Lon's shanty door and knocked. She
heard the squatter call him by name. She knew now that the only hope
for Ann's love for Brimbecomb was that Lem would keep his word and
insist upon Lon's holding faith with him.

Cronk ordered her roughly to come to him. When she appeared, the two men
looked at her keenly. As she evinced no surprise at his presence, the
lawyer knew that she had been told of his coming. He made an attempt to
take her hand; but, as once before, Fledra flung her arms behind her.

"I 'low as she don't like ye, young feller," said Lon, with a laugh.

"Does it matter to you, Cronk?"