iness. In their frank and engaging depths of blue,
as open as the sky, Victor McCalloway read the answer to his question,
and something like a sigh of relief shook him; something spasmodic that
clutched at his throat and his well-seasoned reserve. He had dreaded
that Boone might, in that fanatically bitter association, have brushed
shoulders with some guilty knowledge. He had refused that fear lodgment
in his thoughts as an ungenerous suspicion, but a lurking realization
had persisted. It might need only a short lapse from a new concept to an
inherited and ancient code to make heroes of "killers" for this
stripling.

Slowly and candidly the boy spoke.

"On my word of honour as a gentleman--" His utterance hung hesitantly on
that final word. It was a new thought that it might be applicable to
himself, yet this man was a better and more exacting judge of its
meaning than he, and his heart leaped to the quickened tempo of a new
pride.

"I don't know nothin'--save thet I heered hit named aforehand thet men
war acomin' from ther mountings ter see justice done, an' didn't aim ter
be gainsaid ner thwarted, I 'lowed, though, hit would come about in
fa'r fight--ef so-be hit bred trouble."

That same afternoon Asa Gregory happened by, and because McCalloway had
come to recognize, in his influence, the most powerful feudal force
operating upon the boy's thought, he waited somewhat anxiously to hear
whether the man would express himself on the topic of the assassination.
Since it was no part of wisdom to assail deep-rooted ferocities of
thought in minds already matured beyond plasticity, he did not himself
broach the matter, but he was pleased when Asa spoke gravely, and of his
own volition.

"I done hed hit in head ter go along down thar ter Frankfort with them
boys thet Saul gathered tergether, but now I'm right glad I went by
myself. Thet war a mighty troublous matter thet came ter pass thar."

"Did ye git yore pardon, Asa?" asked Boone, and the older kinsman
hesitated, then made a frank reply.

"I hain't talkin' much erbout thet, son. Ther Governor war hevin' a
right stressful time, an' any favours he showed ter mountain men war
bein' held up ergainst him by his enemies. But I reckon I kin trust both
of ye.... Yes, I got ther pardon."

Late in February an item of news filtered in through the ravines of the
hills which elicited bitter comment. The legislature had voted a reward
fund of $100,000 for the apprehension and