ose who
paused to take note of it was not greatly different from the effect of
such spectacles in other sections. Some looked wise and shook their
heads sorrowfully; some smiled and looked kindly, and sent all manner
of good wishes after the young people. But whether they galloped down
the mountain in the fresh hours of the morning, or rambled up its dark
slope in the dusk of the evening, neither Woodward nor Sis Poteet gave
a thought to the predictions of spite, or to the prophecies of
friendliness.

The mountain girl was a surprise to Woodward. She had improved her few
opportunities to the utmost. Such information as the Gullettsville
Academy afforded she relished and absorbed, so that her education was
thorough as far as it went. Neither her conversation nor her manners
would have attracted special attention in a company of fairly bright
young girls, but she formed a refreshing contrast to the social
destitution of the mountain region.

Beyond this, her personality was certainly more attractive than that of
most women, being based upon an independence which knew absolutely
nothing of the thousand and one vexatious little aspirations that are
essential to what is called social success. Unlike the typical American
girl, whose sweetly severe portraits smile serenely at us from the
canvas of contemporary fiction, Miss Poteet would have been far from
equal to the task of meeting all the requirements of perfectly
organised society; but she could scarcely have been placed in a
position in which her natural brightness and vivacity would not have
attracted attention.

At any rate, the indefinable charm of her presence, her piquancy, and
her beauty, was a perpetual challenge to the admiration of
Deputy-Marshal Woodward. It pursued him in his dreams, and made him
uncomfortable in his waking hours, so much so, indeed, that his duties
as a revenue officer, perplexing at best, became a burden to him.

In point of fact, this lively young lady was the unforeseen quantity in
the problem which Woodward had been employed to solve; and, between his
relations to the Government and his interest in Sis Poteet, he found
himself involved in an awkward predicament. Perhaps the main features
of this predicament, baldly presented, would have been more puzzling to
the authorities at Washington than they were to Woodward; but it is
fair to the young man to say that he did not mistake the fact that the
Moonshiner had a daughter for an argumen