howing the rugged interior of the place with its damp and dripping
ledges, he saw for the first time among them Leander's slight figure and
smiling face; the violin was in his hand, one end resting on a rock as
he tightened a string; his eyes were bent upon the instrument, while his
every motion was earnestly watched by the would-be fiddler.

Nehemiah started hastily to his feet. He had not expected that the boy
would see him here. To share with one of his own household a secret like
this of aiding in illicit distilling was more than his hardihood could
well contemplate. As once more the contemned "ping-pang" of the process
of tuning fell upon the air, Leander chanced to lift his eyes. They
smilingly swept the circle until they rested upon his uncle. They
suddenly dilated with astonishment, and the violin fell from his
nerveless hand upon the floor. The surprise, the fear, the repulsion his
face expressed suddenly emboldened Nehemiah. The boy evidently had
not been prepared for the encounter with his relative here. Its only
significance to his mind was the imminence of capture and of being
constrained to accompany his uncle home. He cast a glance of indignant
reproach upon Hilary Tarbetts, who was not even looking at him. The
moonshiner stood filling his pipe with tobacco, and as he deftly
extracted a coal from the furnace to set it alight, he shut the door
with a clash, and for a moment the whole place sunk into invisibility,
the vague radiance vouchsafed to the recesses of the grotto by the
moonbeams on the water without annihilated for the time by the contrast
with the red furnace glare. Nehemiah had a swift fear that in this
sudden eclipse Leander might slip softly out and thus be again lost to
him, but as the dull gray light gradually reasserted itself, and the
figures and surroundings emerged from the gloom, resuming shape and
consistency, he saw Leander still standing where he had disappeared in
the darkness; he could even distinguish his pale face and lustrous eyes.
Leander at least had no intention to shirk explanations.

"Why, Uncle Nehemiah!" he said, his boyish voice ringing out tense and
excited above the tones of the men, once more absorbed in their wonted
interests. A sudden silence ensued amongst them. "What air ye a-doin'
hyar?"

"Waal, ah, Lee-yander, boy--" Nehemiah hesitated. A half-suppressed
chuckle among the men, whom he had observed to be addicted to
horse-play, attested their relish of the sit