took no disadvantage from his lowly posture.
His head was red, and as it moved erratically about in the gloom,
Watt Wyatt thought for a moment that it was the smith's red setter. He
grinned as he resolved that some day he would tell the fellow this as
a pleasing gibe; but the thought was arrested by the sound of his own
name.

"Waal, sir," said the dealer, pausing in shuffling the cards, "I s'pose
ye hev all hearn 'bout Walter Wyatt's takin' off."

"An' none too soon, sartain." A sour visage was glimpsed beneath the
wide brim of the speaker's hat.

"Waal," drawled the semblance of the setter from deep in the
clare-obscure, "Watt war jes a fool from lack o' sense."

"That kind o' fool can't be cured," said another of the players. Then
he sharply adjuxed the dealer. "Look out what ye be doin'! Ye hev gimme
_two_ kyerds."

"'Gene Barker will git ter marry Minta Elladine Biggs now, I reckon,"
suggested the man on the anvil.

"An' I'll dance at the weddin' with right good will an' a nimble toe,"
declared the dealer, vivaciously. "I'll be glad ter see that couple
settled. That gal couldn't make up her mind ter let Walter Wyatt go, an'
yit no woman in her senses would hev been willin, ter marry him. He war
ez unresponsible ez--ez--fox-fire."

"An' ez onstiddy ez a harricane," commented another.

"An' no more account than a mole in the yearth," said a third.

The ghost at the window listened in aghast dismay and became pale in
sober truth, for these boon companions he had accounted the best friends
he had in the world. They had no word of regret, no simple human pity;
even that facile meed of casual praise that he was "powerful pleasant
company" was withheld. And for these and such as these he had bartered
the esteem of the community at large and his filial duty and obedience;
had spurned the claims of good citizenship and placed himself in
jeopardy of the law; had forfeited the hand of the woman he loved.

"Minta Elladine Biggs ain't keerin' nohow fer sech ez Watt," said the
semblance of the setter, with a knowing nod of his red head. "I war up
thar at the mill whenst the news kem ter-day, an' she war thar ter git
some seconds. I hev hearn women go off in high-strikes fer a lovyer's
death--even Mis' Simton, though hern was jes her husband, an 'a mighty
pore one at that. But Minta Elladine jes listened quiet an' composed,
an' never said one word."

The batten shutter was trembling in the ghost's hand. In fact, so