. The hills
were steeped in silence. The world was black and gold--the fragrance of
the honeysuckle came up from the hedge below. On such a night as this
one could not sleep. He felt himself restless, emotionally keyed up. He
descended the stairs. Then, suddenly, he found himself taking the trail
back towards Huntersfield.

He walked easily, following the path which led across the hills. The
distance was not great, and he had often walked it. He loved a night
like this. As he came to a stretch of woodland, he went under the trees
with the thrill of one who enters an enchanted forest.

An owl hooted overhead. A whip-poor-will in a distant swamp sounded his
plaintive call.

Randy could not have analyzed the instinct which sent him back to Becky.
It was not in the least to spy upon her, nor upon Dalton. He only knew
that he could not sleep, that something drew him on and on, as Romeo was
drawn perchance to Capulet's orchard.

He came out from under the trees to other hills. He was still on his own
land. These acres had belonged to his father, his grandfather, his
great-grandfather, and back of that to a certain gallant gentleman who
had come to Virginia with grants from the King. There had been, too, a
great chief, whose blood was in his veins, and who had roamed through
this land before Europe knew it. Powhatan was a rare old name to link
with one's own, and Randy had a Virginian's pride in his savage strain.

So, as he went along, he saw canoes upon the shining river. He saw tall
forms with feathers blowing. He saw fires on the heights.

The hill in front of him dipped to a little stream. He and Becky had
once waded in that stream together. How white her feet had been on the
brown stones. His life, as he thought of it, was bound up in memories of
Becky. She had come down from school for blissful week-ends and
holidays, and she and Randy had tramped over the hills and through the
pine woods, finding wild-flowers in the spring, arbutus, flushing to
beauty in its hidden bed, blood-root, hepatica, wind-flowers, violets in
a purple glory; finding in the summer wild roses, dewberries,
blackberries, bees and butterflies, the cool shade of the little groves,
the shine and shimmer of the streams; finding in the fall a golden
stillness and the redness of Virginia Creeper. They had ridden on
horseback over the clay roads, they had roamed the stubble with a pack
of wiry hounds at their heels, they had gathered Christmas greens