hope for me, now. That's why I've
come hyar, to say to you all, afore I die, that I am innocent o' firin'
th' stable." He threw back his shoulders and stood before them,
impressive and convincing. "Afore God, I am innocent!"

Frank looked at him with eyes which, as they gazed, altered their
expression. He had thought the man quite possibly guilty of a vicious
act--a foul attempt to burn a helpless animal in order to obtain revenge
upon the man who owned her. But as he gazed he could not doubt that he
was speaking simple truth. "Joe," he said impulsively, "I believe you!"

Joe turned to him with gratitude plain upon his face. "You believe
me--arter all that's passed?" He looked straight into the eyes of the
young man he had hated, with a searching, earnest gaze. "Then," he said,
after a second's pause, "I believe as what you said, that night, war
true. It war never you as ruined me." He held his hand out to the man
whom, not so long ago, he had wished, with all his heart, to kill.

Frank grasped it with a hearty grip, just as the terrifying baying of
the hounds approached the house.

"Frank, they're coming here!" the Colonel cried, excited.

Joe turned away from Frank, looking here and there like a hunted animal.
"Oh, it's hard to die afore I've met Lem Lindsay!" he said hopelessly.
It was quite plain that he considered his fate sealed.

Even as he spoke Holton and half-a-dozen others sprang to the broad
gallery which fronted the whole room. Holton was plainly the leader of
the party, for when he motioned all the others back, they obeyed his
signal without protest, while he, himself, peered eagerly in through a
wide, open window.

Frank, angered beyond measure by this bold intrusion, would have sprung
toward him, to attack him, had not the Colonel waved him back.

"Frank, my boy," said he, "keep cool, keep cool!"

As he spoke, without apology, Holton stepped through the window into
the room, itself.

"Layson," he said curtly, "I'm a committee o' one to ask if you'll turn
over that man, an' make no trouble." He jerked a thumb toward Joe.

Layson was wrathful at the man's intrusion; he had been impressed by
what the fugitive had said. "No," he answered, hotly. "Joe Lorey's in my
house, under my protection, and, by the eternal, you shan't lay a hand
on him!"

The Colonel smiled, delighted. "Kentucky blood!" he cried. "I'll back
you to a finish!"

He ranged himself by Frank, and Madge, as belligerent as either