ath there had been left in
Caleb's lungs; it left Sarah breathless, too. But after an
infinitesimal moment of waiting she held out her own delicate fingers
and took the outstretched hand.

"Haow dye do, Steve?" she answered, and Caleb was at a loss to
interpret the suppressed quality of her voice. "And I--some day I am
sure it will be a great pleasure to remember that I was the--first!"

Then she faced her brother.

"Will you--will your friend, Mr.--Steve--remain for supper, Cal?" she
asked.

And Caleb, quick to see an opening, made the most of this one.

"Stay for supper," he repeated her question, and he laughed.
"Stay--for--supper! Well, I should hope he would. Why--why, he's
going to stop for the night!"

From the vantage place there at the top of the steps Sarah stood and
surveyed her brother's wide and guileless face for a second. Then her
lips began to twitch.

"Very clever, Cal," she told him. "Quite clever--for you!"

And she nodded and withdrew to see that the table was laid for three.

Caleb, chuckling, watched her go; then with a nod to the boy, he
started to follow her in. But Steve paused at the threshold, and when
the man stopped and looked back to ascertain the cause of his delay he
found that the boy was depositing the bear trap upon the porch
floor--found him tugging to free the rusty old revolver from his belt.

"I'll leave Samanthy here," the one called Steve stated, and Caleb
understood that he meant the trap. "An' I reckon I'd better not lug my
weapon into the house, neither, hed I? She might----" He nodded in
the direction of Sarah's disappearance--"Old Tom says womin folks
that's gentle born air kind-a skittish about havin' shootin' irons
araound the place. And I don't reckon it's the part of men folks to
pester 'em."

Caleb didn't know just what to say, so he merely nodded approval.
Again he had been made to feel that it was not a boy but some little
old man who was explaining to him. Silently he led the way upstairs,
and after he had seen the blanket pack deposited in one corner of
Sarah's beloved guest-room, after he had seen the rusty coat peeled off
as a preface to removing the dust accumulation of the long hot day from
hands and face, an inspiration came to him. While the boy was washing,
utterly lost to everything but that none-too-simple task, he went out
of the room on a still-hunt of his own, and came back presently with
the thing for which he had gone searchi