d his arm. For years it had been the
custom of the fishermen to allow the subject of netting to remain
undiscussed. They plied their trade, spent a term in prison if detected,
and returned to again take up their occupation of catching and selling
fish. Ben Letts knew he was venturing upon dangerous ground.

"Broad daylight," he growled, catching the expression upon his
companion's face, "and there ain't no one in sight that'll tell."

"Better be satisfied to keep yer mouth shut, Ben Letts," cautioned
Longman, "nettin' air bad for the man what gets caught."

"Got any bait out there?" he finished, pointing lakeward to a bobbing
box anchored a distance from the shore.

"Not a damn bit," replied Jake Brewer, "don't need it now. Keep the bait
cars a floatin' to blind the eyes of some guy that might be a rubberin'.
They don't know a minnie from a whale, those city coves don't."

"Ain't that Orn's boat comin' under the shadders of the trees?" queried
Longman, rising to his feet and wiping his long jack-knife on his
blue-jeans breeches. "Yep, it air him," he added, getting a closer look
at the approaching flat-bottomed boat in which sat a big
round-shouldered individual working vigorously away at the oars. Orn
Skinner was called the "Giant Fisherman," because even in his bare feet
he was seven inches above every other man in the settlement. Two
enormous humps stood side by side on his shoulders, and a grizzled head
lifted and sank with each sweep of the oars. Glancing around to direct
his course, Skinner saw the men waiting for him in front of Jake
Brewer's hut. With a sharp turn he swung the boat shoreward and a few
vigorous strokes sent it grating upon the sand. Jumping out he dragged
the boat to a safe mooring, from where the waves could not beat it back
into the lake.

CHAPTER II

In the beginning, it is said, God made the heavens and the earth. He
made the seas and all that in them is, with the myriads of fish, the
toads, the snakes and afterward man. Then to grace His handiwork, He
created the heart of a woman--the loving, suffering, unteachable heart
of Eve.

The first tinge of thinking sorrow comes into a woman's heart at the age
of fifteen, and this was the beginning of Tessibel's sorrow, as she
lifted her feet over the hot sands and sped onward. Tessibel was what
most people would call a careless, worthless jade. She shamefully
neglected her father, but covered the fact to him by the wild, willful
wo