er work agin in the
Tanglefoot Mine."

Ozias Crann lifted a scornful chin. "I reckon the last disasters thar
hev interrupted the company so ez they hain't got much heart todes
diggin' fur silver agin over in Tanglefoot Cove. Fust," he checked off
these misfortunes, by laying the fingers of one hand successively in the
palm of the other, "the timbers o' one o' the cross cuts fell an' the
roof caved in an' them two men war kilt, an' thar famblies sued the
company an' got mo' damages 'n the men war bodaciously wuth. Then the
nex' thing the pay agent, ez war sent from Glaston, war held up in
Tanglefoot an' robbed--some say by the miners. He got hyar whenst they
war out on a strike, an' they robbed him 'cause they warn't paid cordin'
ter thar lights, an' they did shoot him up cornsider'ble. That happened
jes' about a year ago. Then sence, thar hev been a awful cavin' in that
deep shaft they hed sunk in the tunnel, an' the mine war flooded an' the
machinery ruint--I reckon the company in Glaston ain't a-layin' off ter
fly in the face o' Providence and begin agin, arter all them leadin's
ter quit."

"Some believe he warn't robbed at all," Kinnicutt said slowly. He had
turned listlessly away, evidently meditating departure, his hand on his
horse's mane, one foot in the stirrup.

"Ye know that gal named Loralindy Byars?" Crann said craftily.

Kinnicutt paused abruptly. Then as the schemer remained silent he
demanded, frowning darkly, "What's Loralindy Byars got ter do with it?"

"Mighty nigh all!" Crann exclaimed, triumphantly.

It was a moment of tense suspense. But it was not Crann's policy to
tantalize him further, however much the process might address itself to
his peculiar interpretation of pleasure. "That thar pay agent o' the
mining company," he explained, "he hed some sort'n comical name--oh, I
remember now, Renfrow--Paul Renfrow--waal--ye know he war shot in the
knee when the miners way-laid him."

"I disremember now ef it war in the knee or the thigh," Swofford
interposed, heavily pondering.

Kinnicutt's brow contracted angrily, and Crann broke into open wrath:
"An' I ain't carin', ye fool--what d' ye interrupt fur like that?"

"Wall," protested Swofford, indignantly, "ye said 'ye know' an' I didn't
_know_."

"An' I aint carin'--the main p'int war that he could neither ride nor
walk. So the critter crawled! Nobody knows how he gin the strikers the
slip, but he got through ter old man Byars's house. An' tha