r his presence
might wear, there was the thud of running footsteps, Jeff Turrentine
rounded the boulder on the other side of the cave and called aloud to
those within,

"Jim Cal! Taylor! Buck! Creed Bonbright's killed Blatch--flung him clean
over the bluff--and got plumb away from us! Bring a lantern you-all.
We've got to hunt for Blatch in under Foeman's Bluff--I'll show you
whar."

Silently Creed drew back into the dense undergrowth. He knew where he
was, now. As he retreated swiftly in the opposite direction from that in
which Jeff had approached, he could vaguely hear the excited voices at
the still, questioning, replying, denouncing, exclaiming. Presently he
came out upon the main trail, rounded the Gulch, heading for the big road
and Nancy Card's cabin, his soul sick within him at the events of the
evening, bitterly regretting the explicit and unwelcome knowledge of the
secret still which had been forced upon him, feeling himself now a spy
indeed--a spy and a murderer.

He walked with long nervous strides; beaten and bruised though he was, he
was unconscious of fatigue; the grief and regret that surged within him
were as an anodyne to physical pain, and it was less than half an hour
later that he opened the door of Nancy Card's cabin, his white face
scratched and bleeding, his torn hands, too, covered with blood, his
clothing rent and earth-stained, his eyes wild and pain-bright.

"Good Lord, boy! What's the matter with ye?" cried the old woman, coming
toward him in terror, both hands out. "I sot up for ye, 'caze Pony he
jest come from Hepzibah an' said that spiled-rotten Andy an' that feisty
Jeff 'lowed ye was a spy an' they was a-goin' to run ye out of the Turkey
Tracks."

She laid hold of him and examined him with anxious eyes.

"I was plumb werried about ye. I knowed in reason they was a-goin' to be
trouble at that fool play-party."

"No, I ain't hurt, Aunt Nancy," said Creed desolately, and he stared past
her at the wall. "But looks to me like I'm cursed. I meant so well----"
He choked on the word. "I'd just had a talk with--She said--we--I thought
that everything was about to come right. And now--I've killed Blatch
Turrentine, and I've just got away from the others. They was all after
me."

Chapter X

A Spy

Old Jephthah was winding the clock when the door--which he had closed
some time ago after the last retiring guests--flung violently open, Andy
paused, flying foot on the threshold,