ration shown him, he looked upon Levi
Markham as a veritable God especially upraised for his guidance and
protection.

"I want to tell you!" he said in a low, tense voice. Leaning forward
until his arms touched the opposite side of the desk, his thin,
sensitive face was nearly on a level with Markham's.

"It's--this--er--way."

The shade at the broad window behind Sandy had not been lowered, and a
very magnificent black night riddled with stars stood like a shield
against which the boyish form and pale face rested. There was a
crumbling fire on the hearth, and the lamp on the table was turned low.
Markham, listening to the slow, earnest voice, became hypnotized by its
quality and pure purpose. He felt the dreariness and hopelessness of
the hard childhood, and the hate that Mary Morley had aroused seemed to
the listener to be the first vivifying happening. He never took his
eyes from Sandy's face from first to last. The years of labour,
self-sacrifice and fixed purpose stirred him strangely, and the touch
of spirit introduced into the boy's voice when he approached the end
found an echo in Markham's heart.

"I'm going to learn and then go back and help them-all who can't help
themselves," Sandy explained, "for _I_ know, sir. No one what does not
know, could ever do it! Us-all fears strangers. I'm going to get
them-all safe some day, sir. I'm going to have a right, big place to
gather them in and teach them. No Hertford curse is going to kill what
has called me!"

So abstracted had Levi been, so distant in thought from the Bretherton
study, and his own inward trouble, that this name, falling from Sandy's
lips, shocked him beyond measure.

"What--did--you--say?" he gasped; "what name did you say?"

"Hertford, sir."

"What do you know of the Hertfords?" It was all Markham could do to
hold his emotions in abeyance.

Sandy told his father's story, all but that which related to the
Waldens, and the listener hung on every word.

"And so, sir, don't you see, I must be what they-all, my kith and kin,
couldn't be? I've got to use my chance for them as well as for me."

"It's a big proposition, boy!" Levi relaxed.

"Yes, sir." The young face was tired and worn.

"Well, then, listen"--a strange light shone in Markham's eyes--"if you
prove yourself able to tackle this job, by God, I'll back you! You and
I will redeem that old Hollow of yours--you with my money! We'll get
Smith Crothers by the throat a