against any
exit being barred to its egress.

It was three o'clock of a late July day and, while the sun was hot, the
breeze gave promise of a cool night.

"Ooh! ooh!"

Just at first Greeley thought the fly had adopted a more militant tone.

"Oooh--ooh!"

Greeley pulled himself together, mentally and physically, and stalked to
the porch; there he encountered the very frank, smiling face of a rather
attractive youngish woman who greeted him cordially with a high-pitched
but sweet:

"Good afternoon."

"Good evening, ma'am," Tod returned.

"I just came up from The Forge; your roads are really scandalous, but the
scenery is beautiful. I want to see if there is any place near here
where I can get board? I've come to stay for a while, anyway; probably
for years, at least."

The young person seemed so eager to share her confidence that Greeley was
on his guard at once. He did not approve of the stills back among the
hills, but he did not feel called upon to assist any government spy in
her work, no matter how attractive and subtle the spy was.

It was two years now since a certain consumptive-looking young man had
caused the upheaval of a private enterprise back of The Hollow and made
so much unpleasantness, but Norman Teale had served his term in prison
and had got on his feet once more, and Greeley had a momentary touch of
sympathy for the Speak-Easy magnates as he glanced up at this new style
of spy.

"Nobody stays on in The Hollow lest he has to," he said cautiously, "and
as for boarding-places, there never was such a thing here, I reckon. I
certainly don't expect they would take any one in at the Walden place,
not if they-all was starving. Miss Ann Walden is quality from way back.
The Morleys couldn't entertain, and what's true of the Morleys is true of
all the others."

"Couldn't you folks take me?"

At this Greeley collapsed on the one chair of the porch, and actually
gasped.

"I ain't got what you might call folks," he managed to say, "unless you
call a brace of dogs, folks."

"Oh! I beg your pardon." Miss Lowe flushed and gave a nervous laugh.
"You see I just must manage to find a home here, and--and I've heard so
much of Southern chivalry and hospitality I rather hoped some one would
take me in until I could look around. The place at The Forge, where I've
been for two nights is--impossible, and the darkies have their hands
stretched out for tips until I feel like a palmist, and a bankrup