, and Rufe himself faced the sentence defiant. He laughed when he
was led back to his cell:

"I'll never hang," he said scornfully. They were the first words that
came from his lips, and the first words that came from old Judd's when
the news reached him in Lonesome Cove, and that night old Judd gathered
his clan for the rescue--to learn next morning that during the night
Rufe had been spirited away to the capital for safekeeping until the
fatal day. And so there was quiet for a while--old Judd making ready for
the day when Rufe should be brought back, and trying to find out who it
was that had slain his brother Dave. The Falins denied the deed, but old
Judd never questioned that one of them was the murderer, and he came out
openly now and made no secret of the fact that he meant to have revenge.
And so the two factions went armed, watchful and wary--especially the
Falins, who were lying low and waiting to fulfil a deadly purpose of
their own. They well knew that old Judd would not open hostilities on
them until Rufe Tolliver was dead or at liberty. They knew that the
old man meant to try to rescue Rufe when he was brought back to jail or
taken from it to the scaffold, and when either day came they themselves
would take a hand, thus giving the Tollivers at one and the same time
two sets of foes. And so through the golden September days the two clans
waited, and June Tolliver went with dull determination back to her old
life, for Uncle Billy's sister had left the house in fear and she
could get no help--milking cows at cold dawns, helping in the kitchen,
spinning flax and wool, and weaving them into rough garments for her
father and step-mother and Bub, and in time, she thought grimly--for
herself: for not another cent for her maintenance could now come from
John Hale, even though he claimed it was hers--even though it was in
truth her own. Never, but once, had Hale's name been mentioned in the
cabin--never, but once, had her father referred to the testimony that
she had given against Rufe Tolliver, for the old man put upon Hale the
fact that the sheriff had sneaked into his house when he was away and
had taken June to Court, and that was the crowning touch of bitterness
in his growing hatred for the captain of the guard of whom he had once
been so fond.

"Course you had to tell the truth, baby, when they got you there," he
said kindly; "but kidnappin' you that-a-way--" He shook his great bushy
head from side to side an