That fellow couldn't help bragging about himself. He was half
loaded. Says I to him, 'What made you come out here, Charlie? To find
me?'

"'Yes,' says he. 'I knew you was here.'"

"'How did you know it?' I asked him.

"'That's a good question,' says he. 'Haven't I got plenty people
working for me that could tell me where you was, or anything else I
wanted to know? The free brothers work together.'"

Wid Gardner's eyes were full on her. He did not speak.

"So we turned and moved further up the lane then," went on Annie. "I
kept on asking him how he come here. I told him I'd been too proud to
send for him. But now he'd come, how could I help loving him all over
again!"

"You didn't mean that," said Wid quietly.

"How much do you think I'd mean it? That Dutch snake! Listen-- He
told me more than the papers ever told. He told me he'd been a sort of
chief there in Cleveland right along, along in the war, and after peace
was signed. He pulled off some good things, so he said, so they sent
him out here. He was after me. Folks, that man took himself apart for
me. He made me promise to go along with him, all dolled up, and in our
own car!"

"You ain't going," said Wid, quietly.

"One guess! But there'll be trouble. I've only told you a little part
of it that that fellow spilled to me. Dorenwald's nutty over these
things. He tells what the German Socialists will do when they get to
America. He says this is the world revolution,--whatever he means.
Oh, my God!"

Annie began to weep in a sudden hysteria.

"Which way did that man go from here?" she heard Wid Gardner's voice at
length.

"I don't know. He said he had a man with him, a 'brainy-cat,' he
called him, to lecture in halls. He made me promise to be out there at
the gate at sun-up to-morrow morning to go away with him. I'd have
promised him anything. I'm awful scared. Why don't the men come back?"

Annie Squires was sobbing now. "And this was our country. We let them
people in. I know it's true, what he said. And I told him that at
sun-up----"

"Don't bother about that," said Wid Gardner quietly. "Now you two set
right here in the house," he added, as he rose and picked up the rifle
he saw hanging on its nails. "I'm going out and lay in the willers
along the lane a little while, near the gate. I can hear you if you
holler. I think it's best for me to go out there and keep a watch till
the fellers come back. Don't be a-