o sweep these mount
ins, ef some mighty tall repentin' hain't done. Of co'se he got all them
notions from Gabe. But Isom al'ays was quar, 'n' seed things hisself. He
ain't no fool!"

The girl was listening. Morbidly sensitive to the supernatural, she had
turned toward him, and her face was relaxed with fear and awe.

"He's havin' dreams 'n' sech-like now, 'n' I reckon thar's nothing he's
seed or heerd that he don' talk about. He's been a-goin' on about you,"
he added, abruptly. The girl's hands gave a nervous twitch. "Oh, he
don't say nothin' ag'in' ye. I reckon he tuk a fancy to ye. Mam was
plumb distracted, not knowin' whar he had seed ye. She thought it was
like his other talk, 'n' I never let on-a-knowin' how mam was." A flush
rose like a flame from the girl's throat to her hair. "But hit's this,"
Rome went on in an unsteady tone, "that he talks most about, 'n' I'm
sorry myself that trouble's a-comm'." He dropped all pretence now. "I've
been a-watchin' fer ye over thar on t' other shore a good deal lately. I
didn't know ye at fust, Marthy"--he spoke her name for the first time--
"'n' Gabe says y'u didn't know me. I remembered ye, though, 'n' I want
to tell ye now what I tol' ye then: I've got nothin' ag'in you. I was
hopin' ye mought come over ag'in--hit was sorter cur'us that y'u was the
same gal--the same gal--"

His self-control left him; he was halting in speech, and blundering
he did not know where. Fumbling an empty bag at the hopper, he had not
dared to look at the girl till he heard her move. She had risen, and
was picking up her bag. The hard antagonism of her face calmed him
instantly.

"Hain't ye goin' to have yer grist ground?"

"Not hyeh," she answered, quickly.

"Why, gal--" He got no further. Martha was gone, and he followed her to
the bank, bewildered.

The girl's suspicion, lulled by his plausible explanation, had grown
sharp again. The mountaineer knew that she had been coming there. He was
at the mill for another reason than to take the boy's place; and with
swift intuition she saw the truth.

He got angry as she rode away--angry with himself that he had let her go;
and the same half-tender, half-brutal impulse seized him as when he saw
her first. This time he yielded. His horse was at hand, and the river
not far below was narrow. The bridle-path that led to the Lewallen
cabin swerved at one place to a cliff overlooking the river, and by hard
riding and a climb of a few hundred feet on f