y, I--" She stopped suddenly, putting
a hand to her mouth. "Go on, say what you want to say, and let's
understand once for all," she added with a sudden sharpness.

Abel Baragar drew himself up. "Well, I say this. I'll give you three
thousand dollars, and you can go somewhere else to live. I'll keep the
boy here. That's what I've fixed in my mind to do. You can go, and the
boy stays. I ain't goin' to live with you that spoiled George's life."

The eyes of the woman dilated, she trembled with a sudden rush of anger,
then stood still, staring in front of her without a word. Black Andy
stepped from behind the stove.

"You are going to stay here, Cassy," he said; "here where you have
rights as good as any, and better than any, if it comes to that." He
turned to his father. "You thought a lot of George," he added. "He was
the apple of your eye. He had a soft tongue, and most people liked him;
but George was foolish--I've known it all these years. George was pretty
foolish. He gambled, he bet at races, he speculated--wild. You didn't
know it. He took ten thousand dollars of your money, got from the
Wonegosh farm he sold for you. He--"

Cassy Mavor started forwards with a cry, but Black Andy waved her down.

"No, I'm going to tell it. George lost your ten thousand dollars, dad,
gambling, racing, speculating. He told her--Cassy-two days after they
was married, and she took the money she earned on the stage, and give
it to him to pay you back on the quiet through the bank. You never knew,
but that's the kind of boy your son George was, and that's the kind of
wife he had. George told me all about it when I was East six years ago."

He came over to Cassy and stood beside her. "I'm standing by George's
wife," he said, taking her hand, while she shut her eyes in her
misery--had she not hid her husband's wrong-doing all these years? "I'm
standing by her. If it hadn't been for that ten thousand dollars she
paid back for George, you'd have been swamped when the Syndicate got
after you, and we wouldn't have had Lumley's place, nor this, nor
anything. I guess she's got rights here, dad, as good as any."

The old man sank slowly into a chair. "George--George stole from
me--stole money from me!" he whispered. His face was white. His
pride and vainglory were broken. He was a haggard, shaken figure. His
self-righteousness was levelled in the dust.

With sudden impulse, Cassy stole over to him, and took his hand and held
it tight.