er counsel
at my dwellin'-house ter-morrow mornin' ... an' now I wants ter hev
private speech with this-hyar man--" he jerked his head toward
Henderson--"afore he gits past talkin'."

With a nod of comprehension the moonshiner and his helper slipped out
of sight in the shadows, and kneeling at Jerry's side, Bear Cat again
raised a cup of white whiskey to his lips.

The odor of the stuff stole seductively into his own nostrils, but he
raised his eyes and saw again the evening star, not rising but setting.

"Blossom's star!" he groaned, then added, "Ye don't delight in me none,
little gal! Thar hain't but one thing left thet I kin do fer ye--an' I
aims ter see hit through."

With insupportable impatience he bent, waiting for a steadier light of
consciousness to dawn in that other face. Every atom of his own will
was focused and concentrated in the effort to compel a response of
sensibility. Finally Henderson's eyes opened and the wounded man saw
close to him a face so fiercely fixed that slowly, under its tense
insistence, fragments of remembrance came driftingly and disjointedly
back to him.

"Kin ye hear me?" demanded Bear Cat Stacy with an implacably ringing
voice. "Does ye understand me?" And the other's head moved
faintly--almost imperceptibly.

"Then mark me clost because I reckon both of us hes got ter stand afore
many hours facin' Almighty God--an' hit don't profit us none ter mince
words."

Through the haze of a brain still fogged and reeling, Henderson became
aware of a hatred so bitter that it dwarfed into petulance that of the
murder horde at the Quarterhouse.

"Ye come hyar ... an' we tuck ye in." The tone rose from feebleness to
an iron steadiness as it continued. "When I come inter ther
Quarterhouse I 'lowed ye'd done turned traitor an' joined Kinnard
Towers ... but since they sought ter kill ye, mayhap I war
misguided.... Thet don't make no difference, now, nohow." He paused and
struggled for breath.

"Ye tuck Blossom away from me ... ye made her love ye because she
hadn't never knowed ... an eddicated man afore.... All my days an'
nights I'd dreamed of her.... Ter make her happy, I'd gladly hev laid
down my life ... but I war jest a rough mounting man ... an' then she
seed _you_."

Henderson's lips moved in a futile effort as Bear Cat halted, gasping.
His hand wavered in a weak gesture of protest--as against an unjust
charge. But Bear Cat's voice leaped suddenly. "Don't stop me! Thar
hain't