no nice
oath." She shuddered, but the mountaineer continued: "Wall, she done all
that, 'n' made me say arter her the things I wisht 'd strike me daid if
I didn't git the fellers what had got him. Then one day, from up in the
rocks, she p'inted 'em out, so'd I know 'em. One got drowned takin' a
raft down ter Frankfo't--he fell off jest arter I shot. 'N' t'other-un I
didn't git fer a long time. I ketched him--"

"Don't tell me any more, Dale," she pleaded. "I know you must have
ketched him."

"Wall," he mused, "'twusn't right ter make no leetle feller take a oath
like that, Miss Jane--'n' I moughtn't a-done hit, 'cept fer not knowin'
no better. I wouldn't be tellin' ye, neither, but Ruth said ye'd want
ter know afore takin' me in school. She says folks in the settlemints is
awful tetchy 'bout killin' folks."

"We'll pass the feud. Tell me how you happened to come here?"

"A circuit rider come through our parts one day, 'n' tol' us 'bout yo'
school. That war in the winter. Ruth war so set on me ter come, 'n' me
the same, I couldn't sleep. She said I'd be like Lincoln, 'n' Clay, 'n'
even finer--ef thar is sech a thing as bein' finer'n them! But I knowed
I'd be jest as fine, 'n' she did too. But ye see, with all our people
daid, 'cept me 'n' her, I couldn't leave. She knowed how 'twar, 'n' one
day a woman come from over the mounting ter live with us. I reckon Ruth
had the preacher ask her ter come 'n' stay thar whilst I war heah ter
school; fer her man had got caught makin' licker 'n' had ter do time
down in the settlemints."

"We say 'her husband'; not 'her man,' Dale."

"Thank-ee. Well, she come, 'n' Ruth says fer me ter light out, 'n' ter
tell ye all I know, as 'twon't take so long as tellin' ye all I don't.
'N' she give me the ole mare, 'n' nine dollars--all we had. The mawnin'
I left," his voice slipped back into the whispery accents, "she put her
arms 'round my neck, 'n' asked me ter make her one promise."

"What was that promise? Can you tell me?"

"Hit war jest somethin'," he hesitated, flushing. "She said she war
willin' fer me ter do any other kind of sinnin', ef I jest plain
couldn't git outen hit, but she hoped I might die afore doin' _that_.
Then she got on her knees 'n' fer most a hour prayed Gawd ter strike me
daid afore He'd see me do hit. She said," he added softly, "hit air on
accounten _that_ sin as how-cum she's blind."

Jane shuddered. She could picture the cabin room, the girl kneeling on
th