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"Even atter what ye've told me, an' deespite thet I accords with all ye seeks ter compass hyarabouts, I've got ter refuse ye. I hain't got no other choice." This time Hump Doane and his delegation did not turn back, but crossed the stile and passed stiffly on.
As he turned and saw her, he started impulsively forward, but recovered himself and also adopted the matter-of-fact demeanor, which she had, herself, assumed. "Howdy, Jack," said the girl carelessly. "I didn't know ye war hyarabouts. I'd jest erbout forgot ye altogether."
The tease in her came to the surface. "Another feller likened me ter a comet amongst small stars, Jerry." "I reckon I kin hazard a guess who thet feller war," he answered soberly. "There's only one man hyarabouts thet's got a gift of speech like thet. Myself, I don't like ter think of ye as a comet, Alexander, they're so plum outen reach." She did not reply and Jerry went on.
Dorothy turned toward him and her lips relaxed their shyness into a friendly smile then impulsively she demanded: "Did yore foreparents dwell hyarabouts a long time back?" Thornton's face, with the moonlight upon it, stiffened into a mask-like reticence at this touching upon the sensitive topic which threatened his identification as a hunted man.
Again, he paused, and his eyes seemed to ask the corroboration which they read in the expression and nod of the stranger from the mysterious outside world. Then, Samson South spread his hands in a swift gesture of protest, and his voice hardened in timbre as he went on: "But these folks hyarabouts kain't understand thet.
A mist was floating white against the dark densities of the woods. He heard the water splashing from the eaves heavily into the gullies below, and then the constable once more raucously cleared his throat. "Thar's a man," he drawled, "a stranger hyarabouts, killed yestiddy in the bridle-path. The cor'ner hev kem, an' he 'lows ye know suthin' 'bout'n it, Constant, 'bout'n the killin' of him.
"Perhaps you will, some day, who knows?" said Donald thoughtlessly. "An' what would this hyar old pine do without the rosebush blossomin' close beside him? What would the leetle wild mountain flowers hyarabouts do without thar Smiles ter take keer o' them?" asked the old man tenderly, but with a hidden undercurrent of distress.
"Ye sees," he zestfully enlightened, "we've got a sort of table land of wheat ground hyarabouts thet raises master crops an' we've got a railroad runnin' right past our doors ter haul hit out ter ther world below." "No wonder folks hyarabouts hes got prosperity," mused Alexander a little enviously, thinking of her rocky hillsides on Shoulder-blade.
Bas thoughtfully fingered his pipe, and when he spoke his words came soberly. "Seein' es how ye're a stranger hyarabouts," he suggested, "I reckon hit hain't no more then plain charity ter forewarn ye. She's got a lavish of lovers an' thar's some several amongst 'em that's pizen mean mean enough ter prove up vi'lent and murderous ter any new man thet comes trespassin'."
Hit's a dire need of safeguardin' ther peace of our folks aye, an' thar lives, too, like es not." He paused, leaving room for an answer that would make easier his approach to an understanding, but no answer came, and he continued: "Ye hain't got no handy way of knowin' like me an' some of these other men thet's always lived hyarabouts, what a ticklish balance things rests on in this section.
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