on her lips, and her face was grave
with puzzled concern.

Poor Judy's black hair was uncombed and dishevelled. The sallow,
old-young face was distorted with passion, and the beady eyes glittered
with the light of an insane purpose.

"What is it, Judy?" asked Betty Jo. "What in the world is the matter?"

"What'd you-all come back for?" demanded Judy with sullen menace in
every word. "I done told him not ter let you. Hit 'pears ter me youuns
ought ter have more sense."

Alarmed at the girl's manner, Betty Jo thought to calm her by saying,
gently: "Why, Judy, dear, you are all excited and not a bit like
yourself. Tell me what troubles you. I came back because I love to be
here with Auntie Sue, of course. Why shouldn't I some if Auntie Sue
likes to have me?"

"You-all are a-lyin'," returned Judy viciously. "But you-all sure can't
fool me. You-all come back 'cause he's here."

A warm blush colored Betty Jo's face.

Judy's voice raised shrilly as she saw the effect of her words.

"You-all knows dad burned well that's what you come back for. But hit
ain't a-goin' ter do you no good; hit sure ain't. I done told him. I
sure warned him what'd happen if he let you come back. I heard you-all
a-talkin' yesterday evenin' all 'bout his book an' what a great man that
there publisher-feller back East 'lows he's goin' ter be. An' I kin see,
now, that you-all has knowed hit from the start, an' that's why you-all
been a-fixin' ter git him away from me. I done studied hit all out last
night; but I sure ain't a-goin' ter let you do hit."

As she finished, the mountain girl, who had worked herself into a frenzy
of rage, moved stealthily toward Betty Jo, and her face, with those
blazing black eyes, and its frame of black unkempt hair, and its
expression of insane fury, was the face of a fiend.

Betty Jo drew back, frightened at the poor creature's wild and
threatening appearance.

"Judy!" she said sharply. "Judy! What do you mean!"

With a snarling grin of malicious triumph, Judy cried: "Scared, ain't
you! You sure got reason ter be, 'cause there ain't nothin' kin stop me
now. Know what I'm a-goin' ter do? I'm a-goin' ter put you-all in the
river, just like I told him, an' old Elbow Rock is a-goin' ter make
you-all broken an' twisted an' ugly like what my pap made me. Oh, hit'll
sure fix that there fine slim body of your'n, an' that there pretty face
what he likes ter look at so, an' them fine clothes'll be all wet an'
mussed