In a day or so, probably--so Burke quickly considered--he could make a
dash back, get White to help him, and bear off his prize, but for the
moment the sooner he reached safety beyond the ridge, the better.
Shooting a dog was no light matter.

Lawson reached safety but with a broken leg; for, going down-stream, he
had met with misfortune and, during that long, hard winter, unable to
fend for himself, he was safely hidden by a timely friend and served by
a doctor who was smuggled to the scene and well paid for his help and
silence.

And in Lois Ann's cabin Nella-Rose waited, at first with serene hope,
and then, with pitiful longing. She and the old woman never referred to
the conversation of the first night but the girl was sure she was being
watched and shielded and she felt the doubt and scorn in the attitude of
Lois Ann.

"I'll--I'll send for my man," at last she desperately decided at the
end of the second week. But she dared not risk a journey to the far
station in order to send a telegram. So she watched for a chance to send
a letter that she had carefully and painfully written.

"I'm to Miss Lois Ann's in Devil-may-come Hollow. I'm trusting and
loving you, but Miss Lois Ann--don't believe! So please, Mister Man
come and tell her and then go back and I will wait--most truly

Your Nella-Rose."

then she crossed the name out and scribbled "Your doney-gal."

It was early in the third week that Bill Trim came whistling down the
trail, on a cold, bitterly cold, November morning. He bore a load of
"grateful gifts" to Lois Ann from men and women whom she had succoured
in times of need and who always remembered her, practically, when winter
"set."

Bill was a half-wit but as strong as an ox; and, once set upon a task,
managed it in a way that had given him a secure position in the
community. He carried mail into the remotest districts--when there was
any to carry. He "toted" heavy loads and gathered gossip and spilled it
liberally. He was impersonal, ignorant, and illiterate, but he did his
poor best and grovelled at the feet of any one who showed him the least
affection. He was horribly afraid of Lois Ann for no reason that he
could have given; he was afraid of her eyes--her thin, claw-like hands.
As he now delivered the bundles he had for her he accepted the food she
gave and then darted away to eat it in comfort beyond the reach of those
glances he dreaded.

And there Nella-Rose sought him