could not see. "I
seen him ten mile down toward the dam, I tell you, with Wid Gardner,
and Nels Jensen's folks, below, said they was going for a doctor, not a
preacher. He wouldn't marry no blind woman like you, no ways."

She sank back, limp, her face in her bloody hands, as she lay against
the edge of the bed.

"Come now," said he. "We got no time to waste. We'll see what the
other fellers think. Housekeeper--huh! You said you wasn't married to
him. You never will be, now."

"You brute!" she cried, with the courage of the cornered thing, the
courage of the prisoner bound to the stake for torture. "You brute!"

She could hear him chuckle throatily. "You don't know me--I'm Big
Aleck, general of the Soviet brothers in this county." He juggled
phrases he never had understood.

"You ought to hang!" she panted. "You will hang, some day."

[Illustration: "You ought to hang!" said she.]

"You better look a little out, gal, I tell you that. You come along
out to the camp, and I'll see how you like that!"

She felt his iron grasp fall upon her wrist. He dragged her across the
floor as though she weighed nothing. She had been wholly helpless,
even if in possession of all her faculties and all her senses. He
flung her from him upon the grass, laughing as she rose and tried to
run, bringing up in the willows, which she could not see. She could
hear the flames crackling at the hay ricks on beyond. By this time the
sounds from the burning barn mercifully had ceased, but she heard him
now at some further work. He was trying to light the battered edge of
the door with a match, but it would not burn.

"Where's the oil, gal?" he demanded.

"We've got none," said she, guessing his purpose of firing the house
now.

He made no answer but a grunt, and finding the ax at the wood pile
nearby, began to hack at the jamb of the door, so that a series of
chips stood out from it, offering better food for flames. She heard
him again strike a match--caught the faint smell of burning pine.

"Come on!" Again she felt his hand. He dragged her, her feet
stumbling in the grass. She could hear horses snorting, so there was
some vehicle here, she supposed. He flung her up to the seat, jerked
loose the halters, and climbed in as the team plunged forward. Had any
one seen the careening wagon, seen the upflung arm of a woman swaying
in the grasp of the man who sat beside her in the seat--had any one
heard the laugh of t