one glance to where the light from his cabin door shone;
then he groaned and said:

"No! God knows they do belong to me and I'm too old, too broken. The
curse will get the best of you, boy, and you'll come trailing home.
I'll be here--then! But----" And now Martin came closer and held him
by the thin, trembling shoulders.

"Grandfather never done it! It was one man's word agin another's and
the Hertfords have the luck--they allus had. Onct one of them come
back"--and here Morley came closer to Sandy--"it was back in ole Miss
Ann Walden's early days--he came back and something happened!" The
whisper made Sandy creep with chill.

"What?" he asked, hoarsely.

"He done a mighty wrong to--Miss Ann's little sister, her that was
called Queenie and looked it! We-all knew, but we-all stood by Miss
Ann, even such as me stood by her! it was the only thing we-all could
do for her. He got away! Then that po' chile took to watching from
the balcony for him who never come--and then she went away--and by and
by--the baby come home!"

"The baby?"

Sandy trembled and grew faint. He had eaten little and the burden
being laid upon him was more than his strength could bear.

"Cynthia--the lil' girl with the face of Queenie, her mother?"

"No! No!" What he feared and abhorred the boy could not tell, but
every instinct in him rose to do battle for the child--friend of his
starved and empty life.

"It's your part, son, to stand by and never let on! We-all have done
it; we-all took what Miss Ann said for gospel truth--and so must you!"

Then it was that Sandy laughed! The sound startled and shocked Martin
and he almost reeled from before it, but strangely enough it seemed to
brighten the heavy darkness.

"I don't believe it!" said Sandy between his bursts of laughter. "It's
a bad dream--we-all must wake up."

"We can't fight them, Sandy!"

The poor legacy of hatred, wrong, loyalty, and despair was all that
Martin Morley had to offer his boy as a weapon in the coming fight.
The uselessness and weakness of it struck Sandy even then as he stood
on the threshold of the new life. What did it matter? But it was the
small thing, the old past that made up the shabby present of The
Hollow. He was going to leave everything--even the old grudge--already
the wider thought called him and gave a touch of daring to his laugh.

"Good-bye, Dad!"

And then Morley staggered toward Sandy and stretched his arms out to
him. Th