chested voice at whose
raising the others fell silent. "They're gathered right now in leetle
clumps an' hovers hyar an' thar, whar they kin rally straightway when ye
gives ther signal." The bass fell silent, then supplemented in
reassurance to the leader: "Thar hain't a timorous ner a disable feller
in ther lot."

"I'm obliged to you, Luther," Boone spoke as one in deep contemplation.
"Then I reckon we're fixed to go over there and take Saul away from the
Carrs, aren't we?"

Anne Masters pressed her hands agitatedly to her breast as a chorus of
yapping assent gave answer. Had he so soon, under the pressure of their
crowd influence, repudiated his decision to play the hard role of
restraint?

"Maybe, though, boys," the representative's voice continued reflectively
when he had succeeded in quieting them, "we'd better wait for the other
men before we start on any grave errand. I hear some of them out there
now."

For an hour the talk ran in a hot freshet, while newcomers augmented the
handful, and with the increase of numbers came a fuller-throated
mounting of passion. Would Boone be able to curb their ferocities? Could
any man do it? Did he even mean to try?

As she listened to the feud disciples coming in from creek beds and cove
pockets, it appeared to her entirely possible that they were capable of
turning on and rending the leader who ventured to cross their strongly
fixed purposes.

Saul Fulton's treachery to Asa, Tom Carr's giving sanctuary to the
Judas, the affront to the clan; these things made up the inflamed burden
of their growing and deepening wrath, and as yet they had not been told
of the man who lay dead, a victim freshly justifying their hunger for
reprisal!

Anne missed the voice of Joe Gregory who, after a brief consultation
with Boone, had gone out again. In Joe's presence she would have felt
strong reassurance, but Joe was carrying sorry tidings to the house of
the boy who lay dead.

Boone knew his people, and he was adroitly playing a most difficult
role, but to her ears came no proof of that. Until the clansmen had
opened and aired the festering sores of their grievances there lay in
them no hope of amenability. After that--perhaps--but the issue must
await its moment, neither anticipating nor procrastinating by the part
of a minute.

At last Boone's glance measured the crowd and recognized that there was
no longer any one for whom to wait. Ahead lay a disclosure, but before
its making