n
Hale's favour, except from young Dave Tolliver, the Red Fox or from any
Falin of the crowd, which Hale had prevented from capturing Dave.
Their statements bothered him--especially the Red Fox's evil hints
and insinuations about Hale's purposes one day at the mill. The miller
thought of them all the afternoon and all the way home, and when he
sat down at his fire his eyes very naturally and simply rose to his old
rifle over the door--and then he laughed to himself so loudly that old
Hon heard him.

"Air you goin' crazy, Billy?" she asked. "Whut you studyin' 'bout?"

"Nothin'; I was jest a-thinkin' Devil Judd wouldn't leave a grease-spot
of him."

"You AIR goin' crazy--who's him?"

"Uh--nobody," said Uncle Billy, and old Hon turned with a shrug of her
shoulders--she was tired of all this talk about the feud.

All that summer young Dave Tolliver hung around Lonesome Cove. He would
sit for hours in Devil Judd's cabin, rarely saying anything to June or
to anybody, though the girl felt that she hardly made a move that he did
not see, and while he disappeared when Hale came, after a surly grunt
of acknowledgment to Hale's cheerful greeting, his perpetual espionage
began to anger June. Never, however, did he put himself into words until
Hale's last visit, when the summer had waned and it was nearly time for
June to go away again to school. As usual, Dave had left the house when
Hale came, and an hour after Hale was gone she went to the little ravine
with a book in her hand, and there the boy was sitting on her log, his
elbows dug into his legs midway between thigh and knee, his chin in his
hands, his slouched hat over his black eyes--every line of him picturing
angry, sullen dejection. She would have slipped away, but he heard her
and lifted his head and stared at her without speaking. Then he slowly
got off the log and sat down on a moss-covered stone.

"'Scuse me," he said with elaborate sarcasm. "This bein' yo'
school-house over hyeh, an' me not bein' a scholar, I reckon I'm in your
way."

"How do you happen to know hit's my school-house?" asked June quietly.

"I've seed you hyeh."

"Jus' as I s'posed."

"You an' HIM."

"Jus' as I s'posed," she repeated, and a spot of red came into each
cheek. "But we didn't see YOU." Young Dave laughed.

"Well, everybody don't always see me when I'm seein' them."

"No," she said unsteadily. "So, you've been sneakin' around through the
woods a-spyin' on me--SNEAKIN' AN' SP