n rocker.

"There be some folks as knows more than they'll tell," put in Ezra,
keeping his eyes upon the squatter Ben.

"And there air folks what thinks they knows a dum sight more than they
can prove," replied Ben.

The great white eye jerked open, the crossed blue one twisting to bring
Ezra Longman within its vision.

An expression of deadening hate flashed for a moment across the red
face, and the white eye closed again. Myra had seen the by-play, and sat
up with a gasp. What was there between Ben and her brother?

Placing the child upon her mother's lap, she stirred the stew bubbling
in the pot on the stove.

"Scoot, and get an armful of wood, Ezy," ordered she; and no sooner had
the tall boy disappeared than she slipped after him.

She stood beside him at the wood pile, staring down upon the crouched
form.

"Hold a minute, Ezy," commanded she.

Ezra stood up.

"What air the matter with yer and Ben Letts?"

"Nothin' ain't the matter."

"There air," insisted Myra, "and it air Tess what air a-doin' it. Ben
Letts air a-lovin' Tessibel. And ye hates him."

"Yep."

"Tess ain't for none of ye! She ain't like other squatters. The man from
the hill says as how Tess can read better'n most gals can, and she has
done it all herself."

"Don't care," grunted Ezra, stooping again. "Ben Letts can keep his
hands offen her, or I tells what I knows."

This was Myra's chance. She grasped the boy's arm, and twisted him about
so that he faced her.

"What can ye tell?"

"Somethin'."

"About Skinner?"

"Yep."

"Ye'd hang Ben Letts if ye could. But ye won't, ye see? Ye'd not hang a
man what ought to be in yer own fambly, would ye?"

"If I tells Pa Satisfied that ye said that, Myry," muttered the boy, "he
wouldn't wait for the law to handle Ben Letts--he'd shoot his dum head
offen him quicker than a cat can blink."

"I knows a hull lot about you, Ezy," warned Myra, "and if ye tells on
Ben, I tells on yer, too. I loves Ben Letts, I does!"

"Bid him keep from Tess, then," answered Ezra sulkily, filling his arms
with wood. Myra looked after him fearfully.

The trouble between her child's father and her brother had come upon her
so suddenly that she had given Ezra another hold upon the man she loved,
by telling him her secret.

That afternoon she followed Letts a short distance along the shore
toward his cabin. When out of sight of her own home, she ran forward.

"Ben! Ben!" she called.

The fisherman tur