with anybody jovially disposed in the crowd. But they
were all gravely absorbed in the conjugal quarrel at which they were
privileged to assist.

"It's jes fur a time," he reiterated.

"Wait an' see!" she retorted, triumphantly.

"I won't wait," he declared, goaded; "I'll take him yit; an' when I do
I'll clar out'n the State o' Tennessee--see ef I don't!"

She turned white and trembled. "Ye dassent," she cried out shrilly.
"Ye'll be 'feared o' the law."

"Wait an' see!" He mockingly echoed her words, and turned in his old
confident manner, and strode out of the crowd.

Faint and trembling, she crept into the old canvas-covered wagon, and
as it jogged along down the road stiff with its frozen ruts and ever
nearing the mountains, she clasped the cheerful Kittredge with a
yearning sense of loss, and declared that the judge had made him no
safer than before. It was in vain that her father, speaking from
the legal lore of the code, detailed the contempt of court that the
Kittredges would commit should they undertake to interfere with the
judicial decision--it might be even considered kidnapping.

"But what good would that do me--an' the baby whisked plumb out'n the
State? Ef Abs'lom ain't 'feared o' Tim's rifle, what's he goin' ter
keer fur the pore jedge with nare weepon but his leetle contempt o'
court--ter jail Abs'lom, ef he kin make out ter ketch him!"

She leaned against the swaying hoop of the cover of the wagon and burst
into tears. "Oh, none o' ye 'll do nuthin' fur me!" she exclaimed, in
frantic reproach. "Nuthin'!"

"Ye talk like 'twar we-uns ez made up sech foolishness ez _habeas
corpus_ out'n our own heads," said Timothy. "I 'ain't never looked ter
the law fur pertection. Hyar's the pertecter." He touched the trigger of
his rifle and glanced reassuringly at his sister as he sat beside her on
the plank laid as a seat from side to side of the wagon.

She calmed herself for a moment; then suddenly looked aghast at the
rifle, and with some occult and hideous thought, burst anew into tears.

"Waal, sir," exclaimed Stephen, outdone, "what with all this hyar daily
weepin' an' nightly mournin', I 'ain't got spunk enough lef ter stan'
up agin the leetlest Kittredge a-goin'. I ain't man enough ter sight a
rifle. Kittredges kin kem enny time an' take my hide, horns, an' tallow
ef they air minded so ter do."

"I 'lowed I hearn suthin' a-gallopin' down the road," said Tim,
abruptly.

Her tears suddenly ceased