individualized lumpish fellows with scant voice in
the government of their common enterprise, had ceased, and that they no
longer busied themselves with the necessary work about the still, nor
with the snickering interludes and horse-play with which they were
wont to beguile their labors. They had all seated them-selves, and were
looking from one to the other of the more important members of the guild
with an air which betokened the momentary expectation of a crisis. The
only exception was the man who had the violin; with the persistent,
untimely industry of incapacity, he twanged the strings, and tuned and
retuned the instrument, each time producing a result more astonishingly
off the key than before.

He was evidently unaware of this till some one with senses ajar would
suggest that all was not as it should be in the drunken reeling catch
he sought to play, when he would desist in surprise, and once more
diligently rub the bow with rosin, as if that mended the matter. The
miller's lowering eyes rested on his shadowy outline as he sat thus
engaged, for a moment, and then he broke out suddenly:

"Yes, this hyar still is the place fur news, an' the place ter look
out fur what ye don't expec' ter happen. It's powerful pleasant ter be
a-meetin' of folks hyar--this hyar stranger this evenin' "--his gleaming
teeth in the semi-obscurity notified Yerby that a smile of spurious
politeness was bent upon him, and he made haste to grin very widely in
response--"an' that thar fiddle 'minds me o' how unexpected 'twar whenst
I met up with Lee-yander hyar--'pears ter me, Bob, ez ye air goin' ter
diddle the life out'n his fiddle--an' Hilary jes begged an' beseeched me
ter take the boy with me ter help 'round the mill, ez he war a-runnin'
away. Ye want me ter 'commodate this stranger too, ez mebbe air runnin'
from them ez wants him, hey Hilary?"

The grin was petrified on Nehemiah's face. He felt his blood rush
quickly to his head in the excitement of the moment. So here was the
bird very close at hand! And here was his enterprise complete and
successful. He could go away after the cowardly caution of the
moonshiners should have expended itself in dallying and delay, with
his negotiation for the "wild-cat" ended, and his accomplished young
relative in charge. He drew himself erect with a sense of power. The
moonshiners, the miller, would not dare to make an objection. He knew
too much! he knew far too much!

The door of the furnace