a manner
of instinctive courtesy. "They hain't a-workin' fer wages but jest ter
kinderly convenience me--I reckon we're both of us right smart beholden
to 'em."

The city man acquiescently nodded his head but he was thinking chiefly
of the calm patience and the tireless strenuousity with which McGivins,
himself, was battling against calamity.

"They are friends of yours," he answered. "They realize that your loss
will be heavy if----" He broke off there and the other went on.

"Hit'll mighty nigh cripple me ef we don't save 'em. I've done held on
ter thet timber fer a long spell of years an' I sorrers ter part with
hit now. But thar's a right weighty mortgage on my land an' hit's held
by a man thet don't squander no love on me at best."

Brent gritted his teeth. He had heretofore known only in the
indirectness of theory the sudden capriciousness of mountain weather;
storms that burst and cannonade without warning; trickling waters that
leap overnight into maddened freshets. Now he was seeing in its
blood-raw ferocity the primal combat between man and the elements.

With a troubled brow Parson Acup returned and addressed McGivins.
"Aaron," he said bluntly, "right numerous fellers air threatenin' ter
quit us and we kain't spare a single hand."

The old man flinched as if under a blow from a trusted hand. "What fer
does they aim ter quit?" he demanded.

"Bud Sellers has started in drinkin' licker, an' a'ready he's gittin'
malignant. Ther Martin boys an' ther Copelands an' others beside 'em,
'lows thet they ain't seekin' no heedless trouble and hit's more
heedful-like fer 'em ter go on home an' avoid an affray. Ef they stays
on hit's right apt to end in blood-lettin'."

McGivins drew himself to a more rigid erectness. "Go back an' tell
them boys thet I needs 'em," he ordered. "Tell 'em ef they don't stand
by me now, I'm ruint. I'll send Bud away ef thet's all thet's frettin'
'em."

"I wouldn't counsel ye ter cross Bud jest now," advised Acup, but the
other laughed under his long beard, a low angry laugh, as he turned on
his heel and, with the man from the city following him, started in
search of the troublemaker.

Bud was found at last behind the great hump of towering rock. The
place, walled in by beetling precipice, was beginning to darken into
cloister-dim shadows. Bud's back was turned and he did not hear the
footfall of the two men who had come upon him there. He knew that when
once he succ