and steadily for ten
minutes.

"Here she is," Pink whispered, at last, and peered excitedly into the
cavern.

It was, as he had said, not very large, but large enough.

"Now pick up that sack with me an' tote hit in here. We mus'n' leave
anythin' roun'. Here, this corner 'll do. Now bring me in that pipe 'n
the little keg. We c'n leave all the tools here _ex_-ceptin' our axes.
Axes looks well 'f we meet anybody goin' down."

"H'm," grunted Yarebrough once more, and scratched his head again. He
stepped out of the cave on to the platform that Nature's hand had laid.
The brightening light indicated the approach of dawn, though the sun
had not yet risen. The mist was not dispelled, but it had grown
thinner, and trees at some distance down the mountain began to have
individual shape through the veil of dry haze that inwrapped them. The
air was cool and sweet. The birds were singing, though still sleepily,
but one in a tree over his head burst into a glorious heralding of the
morning. Bud thrust his hands into his pockets and whistled softly.
Pink roused him roughly from his reverie.

"Come, boy, we gotter fix up this yer openin' somehow."

Bud answered irrelevantly:

"Ah wisht Ah was certain about M'lissy."

Pressley let fly the bush that he was bending across the mouth of the
cave.

"What about her?" he asked, sharply.

"Oh, everythin'!"

Explanation was difficult to his slowness of thought.

"She'll be wonderin' what takes me away from home so much at night; an'
Ah don' much like to leave her alone, neither."

"Cain' ye trust her?" jeered Pink, with an evil scowl, but Bud turned
on him so fiercely that he added, hastily,--"to keep still if ye tell
her?"

"Tell her? Tell M'lissy! Ah wouldn' tell her fo' a good deal! You-all
don' know M'lissy."

"She'd jump ye, Ah reckon."

"No, Ah don' allow she'd say much. The way hit is, ye see,
M'lissy,--hit's foolish 'f her,--but M'lissy kinder thinks Ah ain' a
right bad feller, an' Ah sorter hate to disabuse her min' o' that
opinion."

"She mus' know you-all drinks."

"Yes, Ah 'low she do."

"An' ye play craps."

"Oh, well, that ain' anythin'."

"An' ye fight chickens."

"Of co'se; everybody does that."

"'N you've killed paddidges befo' the law was off."

"Who hasn'?"

"If she knows all those things she sho' cain' think yo' a plumb angel."

"Ah don' s'pose she's lookin' fo' wings. All the same, Ah do hate to
have her know Ah'm about to do this."