warn't plum shore."

"Yes, Cal?"

"Since then ye've jest kinderly pitied me, I reckon ... an' been plum
charitable.... I've got ter know.... War ye mad at me when ye pondered
hit in ther daylight ... stid of ther moonshine?"

The girl's pale face flushed to a laurel-blossom pink and her voice was
a ghost whisper.

"I hain't nuver been mad with ye, Cal."

"Could ye--" he halted and spoke in a tense undernote of hope that
hardly dared voice itself--"could ye bend down ter me an' kiss me ...
ergin?"

She could and did.

Then with her young arms under his head and her own head bowed until her
lips pressed his, the dry-eyed, heart-cramping suspense of these anxious
days broke in a freshet of unrestrained tears.

She had not been able to cry before, but now the tears came flooding and
they brought such a balm as comes with rain to a parched and thirsting
garden.

For a space the silence held save for the tempest of sobs that were not
unhappy and that gradually subsided, but after a little the rapt
happiness on the man's face became clouded under a thought that carried
a heavy burden of anxiety and he seemed groping for words that were
needed for some dreaded confession.

"When a man fust falls in love," he said, "he hain't got time ter think
of nuthin' else ... then all ther balance of matters comes back ... an'
needs ter be fronted. Thar's things I've got ter tell ye, Dorothy."

"What matters air them, Cal? I hain't thought of nuthin' else yit."

"Ye didn't know nuthin' erbout me when I come hyar ... ye jest tuck me
on faith, I reckon...."

He halted abruptly there, and his face became drawn into deep lines.
Then he continued dully: "When I crossed over ther Virginny line ... a
posse was atter me--they sought ter hang me over thar ... fer murder."

He felt her fingers tighten over his in spasmodic incredulity and saw
the stunned look in her eyes, but she only said steadily, "Go on ... I
knows ye _hed_ ter do hit. Tell me ther facts."

He sketched for her the grim narrative of that brief drama in the log
cabin beyond the river and of the guilt he had assumed. He told it with
many needful pauses for breath, but refused to stop until the story had
reached its conclusion, and as she listened, the girl's face mirrored
many emotions, but the first unguarded shock of horror melted entirely
away and did not return.

"Ef ye'd acted any other fashion," came her prompt and spirited
declaration when the recital reac