ard, crisply, "An' ef hit comes ter gun-battlin' in
ther bresh--I don't seek ter brag none--but ye seed me shoot yestiddy."

Rowlett took and slowly read the defiant response which the other had
pencilled and a grim smile of approval came to his face:

To whoever it consarns. I aim to stay here and go wherever I takes
the notion. I aim to be as peaceable as I'm suffered to be--and as
warlike as I has to be.

CAL MAGGARD.

"I wonders, now," mused Rowlett, half-aloud, "who that damn craven mout
be?"

Suddenly his swarthy face brightened with an idea and he volunteered:
"Let me hev thet thar paper. I won't betray ter no man what's in hit but
mebby I mout compare them words with ther handwrite of some fellers I
knows--an' git at ther gist of the matter, thet fashion."

It seemed a slender chance yet a possibility. A man who was everywhere
acquainted might make use of it, whereas the stranger himself could
hardly hope to do so.

But as Maggard thrust the note forward in compliance he took second
thought--and withdrew it.

"No," he said, slowly. "I'm obleeged ter ye--but ye mout lose this hyar
paper an' like es not, I'll hev need of hit herea'tter."

With evident disappointment Rowlett conceded the argument by a nod of
his head.

"Mebby ye're right," he said. "But anyhow we'd better s'arch round
about. Ef thar's a shoe-print left anywheres in ther mud or any
sich-like thing, I'd be more like ter know what hit denotes then what a
stranger would."

Together they went up and down the road, studying the dusty and
rock-strewn surface with backwoods eyes to which little things were more
illuminating than large print.

They circled back of the ruined stockade and raked the rising laurel
tangles with searching scrutiny. Finally Rowlett, who was several paces
in advance, beckoned to the other and gave a low whistle of discovery.

Behind a low rock the thick grass was downpressed as though some huge
rabbit had been huddled there.

"Some person's done fixed hisself a nestie hyar--ter spy on yore
dwellin' house," he confidently asserted, then as he stood studying the
spot he reached into the matted tangle and drew out a hand closed on
some small object.

For a moment he held it open before his own eyes, then tossed over to
Maggard a broken peanut shell.

Neither of them made any comment just then, but as they turned away
Rowlett murmured, as though t