to the forest to
find shelter for the night.

"Tessibel," he called helplessly, under his breath, but Tessibel did not
hear. He limped away not knowing that she had passed as effectually out
of his life as if she had not dwelt in the rickety cabin on his right.

CHAPTER III

Ben Letts rose to his feet after cleaning his jack-knife in the water
and took the same path around the mud cellar which Tessibel had taken.
The cabin door was closed--Tess nowhere in sight. Ben had intended--Ben
didn't know just what his intentions were. He stopped short when his
eyes fell upon Frederick's log. It took a long time for a thought to be
born in the dense brain of the fisherman, but one was there, for the
cross eyes opened and the red tongue licked greedily at the thick chops
like that of a wolf when he comes upon prey for which he does not have
to fight. Letts looked sneakily at the hut window where hung the
remnants of a ragged curtain--all was quiet. He quickly ran his long arm
into the opening of the log and with a snap of his teeth drew out the
high-backed toad.

Holding the reptile in his hand, he slunk behind the willow tree and
stood an instant in abstract hesitation. Suddenly his fiendish face
became flooded with the exultation of a plan fully matured. He let the
toad fall to the ground, needing both hands to draw the blade of his
jack-knife. Frederick hopped vigorously along in the direction of his
log, but Ben, gorged with the instincts of an inquisitor, snatched him
up as he was about to escape. After divesting Frederick of all the
ornaments which nature had given him, the man allowed him to hop about,
grinning, as he watched the rapid leaps of the toad. Frederick had
forgotten the path to his log, he could only turn around and around as
if he had been born to radiate in a circle. Ben could have watched this
tumbling toad all night, so great was his joy at the sight, but it was
getting dark and soon the call would come for the fishermen to gather
for the netting and he would be expected to go.

Taking the toad gingerly up from the earth, he returned it to the hole
in the log, and with but a hasty glance at the dirty curtain which hung
limp and ugly at the cabin window, sneaked away.

* * * * *

After leaving Ezra Longman, Tessibel stood in the cabin for one single
moment with the terrible thought which the boy had planted there,
burning in her brain. She had but a few times se