I tell you why?"

Marjie nodded.

"Well, Star-face, it was laid on me conscience heavy to pay a part av
the debt I owe to the boy who saved me life. I ain't got eyes fur
nothin', and I see the clouds gatherin' black about that boy's head.
Back of 'em was jealousy, that was a girl; hate, that was a man whose
cruel, ugly deeds Phil had knocked down and trampled on and prevented
from comin' to a harvest of sufferin'; and revenge, that was a
rebel-hearted scoundrel who'd have destroyed this town but for Phil; and
last, a selfish, money-lovin' son of a horse-thief who was grabbing for
riches and pulling hard at the covers to hide some sins he'd never want
to come to the light, being a deacon in the Presbyterian Church. All
thim in one cloud makes a hurricane, and with 'em comes a shallow,
selfish, pretty girl. Oh, it was a sight, Marjie. If I can do somethin'
to keep shipwreck not only from them the storm's aimed at, but them
that's pilin' up trouble fur themselves, too, I'm goin' to do it."

Marjie made no reply.

"So I took a vacation and wint off on a visit to me rich relatives in
Westport."

Marjie could not help smiling now. O'mie had not a soul to call his next
of kin.

"Oh, yis, I wint," he continued, "on tin days' holiday. The actual start
to it was on the evenin' Phil got home from Topeka. The night of the
party at Anderson's Lettie Conlow comes into the store just at closin'.
I was behind a pile of ginghams fixin' some papers and cord below the
counter. And Judson, being a fool by inheritance and choice of
profession, takes no more notice of me than if I was a dog; says things
he oughtn't to when he knows I'm 'round. But he forgits me in the pride
of his stuck-uppityness. And I heard Judson say to her low, 'Now be sure
to go right after dark and look in there again. You're sure you know
just which crevice of the rock it is?' Lettie laughed and said, she'd
watched it too long not to know. And so they arranged it, and I arranged
my wrappin'-cord, and when I straightened up (I'm little, ye know), they
didn't see my rid head by the pile of ginghams; and so she went away.
When I got ready I wint, too. I trailed round after dark until I found
meself under that point av rock by the bushes in the steep bend
up-street. I was in a little corner full of crevices, when along comes
Lettie. She seemed to be tryin' to get somethin' out of 'em, and her
short fat arm couldn't reach it. Blamed inconvanient bein' little and