decar rose and went to the squatter.

"Lon," he said, placing a hand upon the rough jacket, "will you bring
your little--" He was about to say daughter, but changed the word to
"Midge," and continued, "Will you bring Midge to my car and come to
Tarrytown with us?"

Cronk stared vacantly.

"Nope," he drawled; "I'll stay here in the hut with Midge. It's dark,
and she's afraid of ghosts. I'll never steal ag'in, Mister, so I can't
get pinched."

Vandecar still insisted:

"But won't you let your little girl come back and get her clothes? And
you, too, can come to our home, for--for a visit." His face crimsoned as
he prevaricated.

But Lon still shook his head.

"A squatter woman's place be in her home with her man," he said.

Vandecar turned helplessly upon Katherine.

"You persuade him," he entreated in an undertone.

Katherine whispered her desire in her father's ear.

"We'll go only for a few days," she promised.

"And ye'll come back here?" he demanded.

The girl glanced toward Governor Vandecar, and caught the slight
inclination of his head.

"Yes," she promised; "yes, we'll come back, if you are quite well."

Cronk stooped down and pressed his lips to hers.

"I'd a gone with ye, Midge, 'cause I couldn't say no to nothin' ye asked
me." But he halted, as they tried to lead him through the door.

"I don't like the dark," he muttered, drawing back.

Fledra eyed him in consternation. Never before had she known him to
express fear of anything, much less of the elements which seemed but a
part of his own stormy nature. Never had she seen the great head bowed
or the shoulders stooped in timidity. Katherine had Cronk's hand in
hers, and she gently drew him forward.

"Come, come!" she breathed softly.

"I'm afraid," Lon whined again. "I want to stay here, Midge." He looked
back, and, encountering Vandecar's eyes, made appeal to him.

"Cronk," the governor said, "do you believe that I am your friend?"

The squatter flung about, facing the other.

"Yep," he answered slowly, "I know ye be my friend. If ye'll let me walk
with my hand in yer'n, I'll go." He said it simply, as a child to a
parent. He held out his crooked fingers, and Vandecar seized them.
Katherine took up her position on the other side of her father, and the
three stepped out into the night and began slowly to ascend the hill.

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

To Horace Shellington it seemed many hours before the small, jerky train
that r