he weapon. Then, in response to
his command, she set off with him through the tortuous forest paths to
the southward.

For the time being, Plutina's dominant emotion was a vast depression.
It bore down on her like a physical burden, under which she had hardly
the power to go forward with slouching steps. It was as if the end of
the world were come, with the loss of everything good and clean and
happy. The only reality was this foul creature to whom she was bound,
from whom there was no escape, who had but to speak and she must obey,
who had the authority to compel obedience. She was sick with horror
of the man's nearness. She felt defilement from the avid eyes, which
moved over her in wanton lingering from head to foot, and back again.
But she had no resource against him. She could only endure for the
present, awaiting the return of strength. She could see no glimmer of
hope anywhere. Yet, she strove numbly against this enveloping despair.
She told herself again and again that, somehow, relief would come
before the dreaded crisis. The words were spiritless; they brought no
conviction. Nevertheless, she kept repeating them mutely to herself,
as she trudged drearily beside Hodges toward Stone Mountain.

"I'll git clar o' him somehow--I will, I will! Gran'pap'll kill 'im!
Zeke'll come! He will!"

It was incredible that her lover could come, that he could even know
of the evil, until too late to save her. Yet, the thought of his
coming subtly cheered her. It persisted in defiance of all reason. And
the affrighted girl clung to it with desperate tenacity, as a drowning
man to the life line. She kept repeating to herself, "Zeke'll come! He
will, he will!" as if the phrases were a spell for the soothing of
terror. She wished that her hands were free to touch the fairy crystal
in her bosom.

The outlaw, after uncouth efforts at conversation, which met with no
response, relapsed into sullen silence, and he mended the pace until
the girl was hard put to it to keep up with his stride. On the first
slopes of Stone Mountain, he halted, evidently at a spot where he had
camped on other occasions, for presently he produced a skillet and
coffee-pot and materials for a rude meal from their concealment in the
bushes. But his first care was to place the prisoner on a log, where a
sapling at her back served for attaching the loop of the leash. He
then busied himself with making a fire and preparing the food, from
time to time jeering a