t of sight. To Martin or
Matilda he permitted himself a bit of relaxation.

"Well," he had said to Martin after the first strangeness had worn off,
"so you are the father of this boy, eh?"

"I am, sir!"

The pride that rang in Morley's voice was never veiled, and his native
dignity was touching.

"I reckon any one might doubt it, sir, seeing him and me, but he's mine
and I'm his."

"Well, well!" Markham put his hand out frankly. "I hope you're
grateful."

"I am mighty grateful, sir. Mornin' an' night I kneel an' thank my
God, an' day in an' out I live the poor best I can, sir, my
thankfulness."

Markham gripped the thin, hard hand appreciatively. He knew more of
Martin than Martin suspected, for Marcia Lowe had made it her first
duty, after the Markhams' arrival, to get into touch with them. Not
Sandy alone had been the theme of the little doctor's discourse;
Martin's grim and self-sacrificing fight in her cabin was given in
detail with other happenings in The Hollow.

"Oh! they are so big and silent and patient," Miss Lowe had explained,
"they cannot for one moment comprehend their own importance in the
scheme of things. I feel it a duty to shine up their virtues."

Levi was deeply touched by all he heard, and when things puzzled him he
gruffly insisted that he needed a walk to calm his nerves, and always
it was the little doctor who straightened the tangle.

"Miss Interpreter," Markham dubbed her, and through her he became
acquainted with Smith Crothers and Crothers' mark upon recent
occurrences. Of course Levi knew of Lans Treadwell's visit to the
hills. Markham was not a superstitious man, but he had remarked to
Matilda before they came to Lost Hollow that it "looked like the hand
of God." After a seance or so at Trouble Neck, Levi changed his mind.

"I tell you, Matilda," he confided by her fireside one night after a
particularly satisfying day with Sandy, "we take for granted that God
Almighty's hand is the only guiding in the final analysis, but the
devil gets in a twist now and again, and I guess he had more to do with
Lansing's heading up here than God did. Once old Nick got the boy here
he did his best to use him, too, but from what I can learn Lans spunked
up at the end and showed himself more of a man than we might have
expected. He played a good deal of havoc in a few short weeks, though."

Marcia Lowe had eliminated Sandy from poor Cynthia's romance or
tragedy. She had put a pu