nt nothing by
this; nevertheless, her fancy had run far enough. He ignored her
invitation, and instead of kissing her he patted her shoulder
affectionately, saying:

"You're a dear child, and I can never repay you for mending my poor
cracked head."

He turned his back, went to the table and lit the lamp, uncomfortably
aware of the fact, meanwhile, that Allie remained motionless where he
had left her. He ran on, casually, during the time he adjusted chimney
and wick: "I was on the porch just now and found a rabbit crouching
there. The poor thing was too wet and frightened to move." Allie did
not seem to hear him. "All sorts of things are floating about; dead
chickens, rattlesnakes, and--Oh yes, another thing I noticed; there's a
good deal of oil on the water! I wonder where it comes from?"

Allie stirred herself; she jerked open the oven door, peered in, then
slammed it shut. Her voice was sullen as she said: "They've been
expecting a gusher on sixteen. Maybe the reservoirs have overflowed, or
a pipe line has broken. Maybe it came in wild, you can't tell. This
flood will cost a good many people a lot."

Supper, when the two sat down to it, proved to be a pleasant meal, for
the soft glow of the lamp, the warmth from the stove, made of the
Briskow kitchen a cozy place, while the drumming of the rain overhead
enhanced their feeling of comfort and security. Gray's appetite was not
that of a sick man, and Allie, who had regained her agreeable humor by
this time, waited upon him with eager face and shining eyes. He paused,
finally, to say:

"See here! You're not eating a bite."

"I'm not hungry. I couldn't eat, to-night. Please--I'm perfectly happy.
I feel like a slave at the great lord's table; all I care to do is look
on." After a moment she continued: "It couldn't have been so bad to be
a slave--a girl slave. Somebody owned them, anyhow; they belonged to
their masters, body and soul, and that's something. Women are like
that. They've got to belong to somebody to be happy."

Gray was a talkative man, therefore he argued this point until he began
to suspect that his companion was not heeding his words so much as the
sound of his voice. More plainly than before he realized that there was
something about Allie to-night utterly strange and quite contrary to
his conception of her, but, because he believed her to be unlike other
women, he did not try to understand it.

During the night an explosive crash followed by a lo