d down the creek to
the river. A katydid began to chant. Twilight was coming, and the miller
rose.

"Hit's a comfort to know you won't be mixed up in all this devilment,"
he said; and then, as though he had found more light in the gloom:
"Hit's a comfort to know the new rider air shorely a-preachin' the right
doctrine, 'n' I want ye to go hear him. Blood for blood-life fer a life!
Your grandad shot ole Tom Lewallen in Hazlan. Ole Jack Lewallen shot him
from the bresh. Tom Stetson killed ole Jack; ole Jass killed Tom, 'n' so
hit comes down, fer back as I can ricollect. I hev nuver knowed hit to
fail." The lad had risen on one elbow. His face was pale and uneasy, and
he averted it when the miller turned in the door.

"You'd better stay hyeh, son, 'n' finish up the grist. Hit won't take
long. Hev ye got victuals fer yer supper?"

Isom nodded, without looking around, and when old Gabe was gone he rose
nervously and dropped helplessly back to the floor.

"'Pears like old Gabe knows I killed Jass," he breathed, sullenly.
"'Pears like all of 'em knows hit, 'n' air jus' a-tormentin' me."

Nobody dreamed that the boy and his old gun had ended that fight on the
cliff; and without knowing it, old Gabe kept the lad in constant torture
with his talk of the blood-penalty. But Isom got used to it in time,
for he had shot to save his brother's life. Steve Marcum treated him
thereafter as an equal. Steve's friends, too, changed in manner towards
him because Steve had. And now, just when he had reached the point of
wondering whether, after all, there might not be one thing that old Gabe
did not know, Crump had come along with the miller's story, which he had
got from still another, a circuit-rider, who must know the truth. The
fact gave him trouble.

"Mebbe hit's goin' to happen when I goes with Steve atter ole Brayton,"
he mumbled, and he sat thinking the matter over, until a rattle and a
whir inside the mill told him that the hopper was empty. He arose to
fill it, and coming out again, he heard hoof-beats on the dirt road. A
stranger rode around the rhododendrons and shouted to him, asking the
distance to Hazlan. He took off his hat when Isom answered, to wipe the
dust and perspiration from his face, and the boy saw a white scar across
his forehead. A little awestricken, the lad walked towards him.

"Air you the new rider whut's goin' to preach up to Hazlan?" he asked.

Raines smiled at the solemnity of the little fellow. "Yes,