ation of
the foulness of the deed which he was contemplating.

"No--no!" said he. "Why, I'd be the coward that he called me!"

He hurried to the fuse and, with trembling eagerness, stamped out the
spark which, now, was creeping close indeed to that point where it would
have blossomed into the terrifying flower of death.

"I'll fight him ag'in," he said; and then, addressing the now
extinguished fuse, the harmless cartridge of explosive: "You lie thar
and prove ter him I ain't no coward!"

He hurried down the trail.

Holton, vastly disappointed, crept out from his hiding place. "The
fool!" he muttered. "Oh, the fool! That thar little spark would a' put
me even an' made me safe fer life! An' it war lighted--it war lighted!"

His regret was keen. He raged there like a madman robbed of his intended
prey. Then, suddenly:

"But--who'll believe him when he says he put it out? I'll--do it!"

He hastily took out a match, struck it, relighted the dead fuse.

"It'll be his work, not mine!" he thought, exultantly, as he paused to
see that the fuse would surely burn.

As he turned to hasten from the spot he caught a glimpse of something
white across the gully at the thresh-hold of the girl's cabin. For a
second this was terrifying, but he quickly regained poise. The bridge
was gone. She could not reach the side of the endangered man to save
him, she could not reach the mainland to pursue him and discover his
identity. He fled.

The girl was worried by the long delay in Layson's coming. For fully
half an hour she had been listening for his cheery hail--that hail which
had, of late, come to mean so much to her--as she worked about her
household tasks. The last words he had said to her had hinted at such
unimagined possibilities of riches, of education, of delirious delights
to come, that her impatience was but natural; and, besides this, Joe's
words had worried her. She did not think the mountaineer would ever
really let his jealousy lead him to a foul attack upon his rival, but
his words had worried her. She stood upon her doorstep, hand above her
eyes, and peered across the gorge toward where the trail debouched into
the little clearing.

Nothing was in sight there, and her gaze wandered along the little rocky
field, in aimless scrutiny. Finally it chanced upon the prostrate form
of the young man.

"What's that lyin' thar?" she thought, intensely startled. And then,
after another moment's peering: "Why, it's Mr. Fran