ootsteps
in the bed of the creek below. If this were so, there could be no doubt
that his hiding-place was suspected.

"O Hank!" shouted Bud from the top of the cliff to some one in the creek
below, "be sure to look at the Spring-in-rock--I think he's there."

This hint was not lost on Ralph, who speedily changed his quarters by
climbing up to a secluded, shelf-like ledge above the spring. He was
none too soon, for Pete Jones and Hank Banta were soon looking all
around the spring for him, while he held a twenty-pound stone over
their heads ready to drop upon them in case they should think of looking
on the ledge above.

When the crowd were gone Ralph knew that one road was open to him. He
could follow down the creek to Clifty, and thence he might escape. But,
traveling down to Clifty, he debated whether it was best to escape. To
flee was to confess his guilt, to make himself an outlaw, to put an
insurmountable barrier between himself and Hannah, whose terror-stricken
and anxious face as she stood by the brook-willows haunted him now, and
was an involuntary witness to her love.

Long before he reached Clifty his mind was made up not to flee another
mile. He knocked at the door of Squire Underwood. But Squire Underwood
was also a doctor, and had been called away. He knocked at the door of
Squire Doolittle. But Squire Doolittle had gone to Lewisburg. He was
about to give up all hope of being able to surrender himself to the law
when he met Squire Hawkins, who had come over to Clifty to avoid
responsibility for the ill-deeds of his neighbors which he was powerless
to prevent.

"Is that you, Mr. Hartsook?"

"Yes, and I want you to arrest me and try me here in Clifty."

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 26: I have already mentioned the absence of _pail_ and _pare_
from the ancient Hoosier folk-speech. _Brook_ is likewise absent. The
illiterate Indiana countryman before the Civil War, let us say, had no
pails, pared no apples, husked no corn, crossed no brooks. The same is
true, I believe, of the South generally. As the first settlers on the
Southern coast entered the land by the rivers, each smaller stream was
regarded as a branch of the larger one. A small stream was therefore
called a _branch_. The word brook was probably lost in the first
generation. But a small stream is often called a _run_ in the Middle and
Southern belt. Halliwell gives _rundel_ as used with the same
signification in England, and he gives _ryn_ in the sa