nt point for the meeting
between Plutina and the officer. Its loneliness lessened the element
of danger. Both were prompt to the rendezvous. Well under the hour,
man and girl were standing together within a bower of newly blossoming
rhododendrons. Above them, the naked rock bent sharply, its granite
surface glistening in the hot noonday sun. They had withdrawn some
score of yards from the old wooden gate that barred the lane here,
lest a chance passer-by see them together. Plutina opened her mind
without hesitation. The decision once made, she had no thought of
drawing back.

"I 'low I kin trust ye, Mister Stone," she said simply, and the
sincerity of the lustrous eyes as they met his confirmed her words.
"Afore you-all's time in the revenue service, raiders done kilt my
daddy. I kain't never fergive them men, but they's out o' the service
now, er I wouldn't have come to ye. Gran'pap says they's a better lot
o' revenuers now 'n what used to be an' he says as how Marshal Stone
don't do no dirt. Thet's why I'm a-trusting ye, so's ye kin kotch the
pizen-meanest white man a-makin' likker in the hull Stone Mountain
country--him an' his gang an' his still."

The marshal's eyes sparkled.

"I reckon you're talking about Dan Hodges," he interjected.

Plutina nodded her head in somber acquiescence.

[Illustration:
_Clara Kimball Young under the direction of Lewis J. Selznick._
JOINES' MILL.]

"Then you needn't have any scruples about giving information," Stone
continued, urgently. "He and his gang are a menace to the peace of the
settlement. I'll keep you out of it, of course, to save you
embarrassment."

"Ye'd better," Plutina retorted, "to save my life. I don't know's I
mind bein' embarrassed so much, but I don't feel called to die yit."

"No, no; there won't be anything like that," the marshal exclaimed,
much disconcerted. "I'll see no trouble comes to you. Nobody'll know
your part."

"'Cept me!" was the bitter objection. "If 'twas anybody but that
ornery galoot, I wouldn't say a word. Ye know that."

"I know," Stone admitted, placatingly.

In his desire to change her mood, he blundered on:

"And there's the reward for getting the 'copper'--twenty dollars for
you Plutina. If we get Hodges, I'll give you another fifty out of my
own pocket. That'll buy you a nice new dress or two, and a hat, and
some silk stockings for those pretty legs of yours."

Plutina flared. The red glowed hot in her cheeks, and the big e