ery ugly.

"That's so. And some of 'em likewise said that a man who was too lazy to
keep a tight roof over his own head, when he could have nails and boards
by asking for 'em, wouldn't do no good as an overseer," added Beardsley,
counting the holes in the top of the cabin through which the rafters
could be seen, and glancing at the stick chimney, which leaned away from
the wall as if it were about to topple over. "But that aint what I come
here for, to carry tales about my neighbors. I want to say I'm glad to
see you doing so well, and that if you are needing a small side of meat
and a little meal, you know where to get 'em."

"Sarvant, sah," replied Kelsey. "That there is more neighbor-like than
demeaning a man for a trifling hound because he is pore, and I'll bear
it in mind, I bet you. As for my roof, it's a heap better'n the one them
Grays will have to cover them in a week from now; you hear me? That big
house of theirn will burn like a bresh-heap."

"Well, take care of yourself," answered the captain. "But if I'd
suspicioned you was going to fly mad about it, I wouldn't 'a' spoke a
word to you."

"Kelsey will never carry out his threat," said Colonel Shelby, as the
two rode away from the cabin. "He is too big a coward."

"I know that mighty well, but you can say that you heard him speak them
very words, can't you?"

Captain Beardsley was very lively and talkative after that, and plumed
himself on having done a neat stroke of work that would turn suspicion
from himself, when the results of a certain other plan he had in his
head should become known in the settlement. But perhaps we shall see
that he forgot one very important thing. As to the colonel, although he
approved the work that was to be done, he had the profoundest contempt
for the man who could deliberately plan and carry it out. He had little
to say, and was glad when his horse brought him to a bridle-path that
would take him away from Beardsley and toward his own home.

Meanwhile Marcy Gray was in a most uncomfortable frame of mind. When he
saw the visitors ride out of the gate, he closed the door and went back
to his mother. "The captain never spoke of meeting you and Jack at
Crooked Inlet," were the first words she uttered.

"Of course not," replied Marcy. "You did not expect him to, did you? But
I rather looked for him to give some reason for coming home, and to hear
him say that he would have no further occasion for my services; but he
was so