hat he drew back
with a rough ejaculation. Then smiling a wide, toothless smile, she laid
her finger on her lips. Drawing it away again, she mumbled.

"Hair stranglin' 'em both, same as you, long curls like snakes
stranglin' all of ye. God! _what hair!_"

Waldstricker, with flashing eyes, suddenly got to his feet.

"Come out of here," he ordered Tess, roughly. "That hateful hag! The
hateful wicked old woman!"

A wild, exultant yell left Mother Moll's lips.

"_Yep_, get out o' here!" she shrieked. "Get out quick, both of ye! Yer
lives'll twine like this, an' this, an' this." Tensely she locked
together her bony fingers. "An' hair'll strangle ye, wretched man, an'
may ye never breathe a fine breath after it touches yer proud throat!"

Moved by a kind of superstitious horror of the prophecies of the old
witch, Waldstricker pushed her roughly aside, seized Tess by the arm and
dragged her out of the house. On the path he let her go and stood
transfixed, as though the length and abundance of the red curls, falling
in disordered confusion to her hips, fascinated him. Then he lifted his
great shoulders, and a tense breath slipped through his teeth.

"What an awful old woman!" he flung out disgusted. "If there's any power
in law or money, I'll root her out of that shanty as I will the rest of
her tribe."

Tess was thoroughly frightened. His ruthless roughness hurt her and his
threats against Mother Moll and the squatters terrified her. Would he
try and root Daddy Skinner and herself from their shanty? No, he
couldn't! He couldn't! Neither would his long, powerful hands place
their grip upon the life of the dwarf. Mother Moll had said so, and she
believed--oh, how she believed it!

Waldstricker started to speak again, but unable to bear longer the cruel
corner-curl of his lips, Tess of the Storm Country turned and fled
swift-footed away toward the lake. The man watched the flying figure
bounding along toward the span of blue water. Then with another flip of
his whip, which struck the heads from the flower stems, he wheeled about
and walked swiftly up the hill.

[Illustration: "I WILL!" GRITTED WALDSTRICKER THROUGH HIS TEETH, IN
SPITE OF HIMSELF, INTENSELY INTERESTED IN THE OLD WOMAN'S REVELATIONS]

CHAPTER IV

TESS AND FREDERICK

Tessibel left Waldstricker with but one idea buzzing in her active
brain; to reach Daddy Skinner--to tell him all that had just happened.
She fled around the mud cellar and opened