st day he had
met her.

"That was Cress with ye?" she said.

He hesitated, still gazing at her in wonder.

"Don't lie."

He started. "I don't propose to," he retorted indignantly. "It was"--

"I don't ask ye how long this yer's bin goin' on," she said, pointing
to Cressy's sun-bonnet, a few books, and a scattered nosegay of wild
flowers lying on the hay; "and I don't want to know. In five minutes
either her father will be here, or them hell-hounds of Harrison's who've
sold him out will swarm round this barn to git possesshun. Ef
this yer"--she again pointed contemptuously to the objects just
indicated--"means that you've cast your lot with US and kalkilate to
take our bitter with our sweet, ye'll lift up that stack of hay and
bring out a gun to help defend it. Ef you're meanin' anythin' else,
Ford, you'll hide yourself in that hay till Hiram comes and has time
enough to attend to ye."

"And if I choose to do neither?" he said haughtily.

She looked at him in unutterable scorn. "There's the winder--take it
while there's time, afore I bar it. Ef you see Hiram, tell him ye left
an old woman behind ye to defend the place whar you uster hide with her
darter."

Before he could reply there was a distant report, followed almost
directly by another. With a movement of irritation he walked to the
window, turned and looked at her--bolted it, and came back.

"Where's that gun?" he said almost rudely.

"I reckon's that would fetch ye," she said, dragging away the hay and
disclosing a long trough-like box covered with tarpaulin. It proved to
contain powder, shot, and two guns. He took one.

"I suppose I may know what I am fighting for?" he said dryly.

"Ye might say 'Cress' ef they"--indicating the direction of the
reports--"happen to ask ye," she returned with equal sobriety. "Jess now
ye kin take your stand up thar in the loft and see what's comin'."

He did not linger, but climbed to the place assigned him, glad to escape
the company of the woman who at that moment he almost hated. In his
unreflecting passion for Cressy he had always evaded the thought of this
relationship or propinquity; the mother had recalled it to him in a way
that imperilled even his passion for the daughter; his mind was wholly
preoccupied with the idiotic, exasperating, and utterly hopeless
position that had been forced upon him. In the bitterness of his spirit
his sense of personal danger was so far absorbed that he speculated on
the chanc