't you think so?"

"Some of 'em deserves hit," returned Mrs. Lance, laconically. "He's
one."

Von Rittenheim was fumbling with the halter-strap of his mule, when
Pressley appeared beside him out of the shadow of a pine-tree.

"Is that you, Pr-ressley? Do you r-ride or walk?"

"Ah'm walkin'."

"Then will I not mount."

Friedrich slipped the reins over the mule's head, and led him out on to
the highway. Pressley walked beside him. The stars shone brightly
enough to make visible the open road.

"Are you-all goin' to ask me about the rent, Mr. Baron? Bud 'n me's
been pullin' fodder fo' a week. Hit's all ready in the upper field, 'n
you c'n take yo' choice any time. They's good bundles, fo' han's to the
bundle."

"Thank you. No, it was not of that I was going to speak. I want to tell
you that about six weeks ago--it was in August--I was up on Buzzard
Mountain one night, and I fell asleep there."

Pink looked at him suspiciously in the darkness, and put a piece of the
road between them.

"I fell asleep on a ledge of r-rock, and when I woke up I heard voices
just under me."

"The hell ye did!"

"It was you and Bud."

"Well, what ye goin' to do about hit? Hit ain' befittin' you to squeal
on us."

Von Rittenheim turned hot in the darkness, and made an impulsive motion
that induced a corresponding disturbance in his companion.

"If I had thought of doing that I should not have spoken to you
to-night."

Pressley nodded, and came across the intervening space.

"You-all wan' to come into the game, eh?"

"No, I do not want to join you, if that is what you mean."

"Well, what do ye want, anyway?"

"I wees' to say a few things to you. I do not ask you to stop
moonshining. You are old enough to decide for yourself what kind of
life you pr-refer to lead, though you know well that the life of a
law-br-reaker is not the r-right sort."

"Oh, quit preachin', Mr. Baron. You-all's a law-breaker, yo'self."

Friedrich clutched the reins with a jerk that made the mule give a
disgusted snort. The justice of the retort compelled him to
self-control, as well as the knowledge that a giving way to rage would
accomplish nothing, whereas coolness might do something.

"You know as well as I do the penalty of br-reaking the law. You've
suffered it more than once, they tell me."

"Ah reckon Ah've cost 'em right smart mo'n they ever got out o' me,"
chuckled Pink.

"So I do not ask you to face the r-results of what you do,