r road this time," he said quietly. "Three
o' the Falins will be waitin' in the lorrel somewhar on the road to
lay-way ye."

Hale was dumfounded, but he knew the boy spoke the truth.

"Look here," he said impulsively, "I've got nothing against you, and
I hope you've got nothing against me. I'm much obliged--let's shake
hands!"

The boy turned sullenly away with a dogged shake of his head.

"I was beholden to you," he said with dignity, "an' I warned you 'bout
them Falins to git even with you. We're quits now."

Hale started to speak--to say that the lad was not beholden to him--that
he would as quickly have protected a Falin, but it would have only made
matters worse. Moreover, he knew precisely what Dave had against him,
and that, too, was no matter for discussion. So he said simply and
sincerely:

"I'm sorry we can't be friends."

"No," Dave gritted out, "not this side o' Heaven--or Hell."

XIX

And still farther into that far silence about which she used to dream
at the base of the big Pine, went little June. At dusk, weary and
travel-stained, she sat in the parlours of a hotel--a great gray
columned structure of stone. She was confused and bewildered and her
head ached. The journey had been long and tiresome. The swift motion of
the train had made her dizzy and faint. The dust and smoke had almost
stifled her, and even now the dismal parlours, rich and wonderful as
they were to her unaccustomed eyes, oppressed her deeply. If she could
have one more breath of mountain air!

The day had been too full of wonders. Impressions had crowded on her
sensitive brain so thick and fast that the recollection of them was as
through a haze. She had never been on a train before and when, as
it crashed ahead, she clutched Hale's arm in fear and asked how they
stopped it, Hale hearing the whistle blow for a station, said:

"I'll show you," and he waved one hand out the window. And he repeated
this trick twice before she saw that it was a joke. All day he had
soothed her uneasiness in some such way and all day he watched her with
an amused smile that was puzzling to her. She remembered sadly watching
the mountains dwindle and disappear, and when several of her own people
who were on the train were left at way-stations, it seemed as though all
links that bound her to her home were broken. The face of the country
changed, the people changed in looks, manners and dress, and she shrank
closer to Hale with an increasi