by God, we've got to stay trapped in heah an' watch an awful
sight," ejaculated the old man, completely unnerved. "See that break
in the fence! ... Jorth's done that.... To let in the hogs!"

"Aw, Isbel, it's not so bad as all that," remonstrated Blaisdell,
wagging his bloody head. "Jorth wouldn't do such a hell-bent trick."

"It's shore done."

"Wal, mebbe the hogs won't find Guy an' Jacobs," returned Blaisdell,
weakly. Plain it was that he only hoped for such a contingency and
certainly doubted it.

"Look!" cried Esther Isbel, piercingly. "They're workin' straight up
the pasture!"

Indeed, to Jean it appeared to be the fatal truth. He looked blankly,
feeling a little sick. Ann Isbel came to peer out of the window and
she uttered a cry. Jacobs's wife stood mute, as if dazed.

Blaisdell swore a mighty oath. "-- -- --! Isbel, we cain't stand heah
an' watch them hogs eat our people!"

"Wal, we'll have to. What else on earth can we do?"

Esther turned to the men. She was white and cold, except her eyes,
which resembled gray flames.

"Somebody can run out there an' bury our dead men," she said.

"Why, child, it'd be shore death. Y'u saw what happened to Guy an'
Jacobs.... We've jest got to bear it. Shore nobody needn't look
out--an' see."

Jean wondered if it would be possible to keep from watching. The thing
had a horrible fascination. The big hogs were rooting and tearing in
the grass, some of them lazy, others nimble, and all were gradually
working closer and closer to the bodies. The leader, a huge, gaunt
boar, that had fared ill all his life in this barren country, was
scarcely fifty feet away from where Guy Isbel lay.

"Ann, get me some of your clothes, an' a sunbonnet--quick," said Jean,
forced out of his lethargy. "I'll run out there disguised. Maybe I
can go through with it."

"No!" ordered his father, positively, and with dark face flaming. "Guy
an' Jacobs are dead. We cain't help them now."

"But, dad--" pleaded Jean. He had been wrought to a pitch by Esther's
blaze of passion, by the agony in the face of the other woman.

"I tell y'u no!" thundered Gaston Isbel, flinging his arms wide.

"I WILL GO!" cried Esther, her voice ringing.

"You won't go alone!" instantly answered the wife of Jacobs, repeating
unconsciously the words her husband had spoken.

"You stay right heah," shouted Gaston Isbel, hoarsely.

"I'm goin'," replied Esther. "You've no hold over me. My husba