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Updated: May 25, 2025
Never before had she known him to express fear of anything, much less of the elements which seemed but a part of his own stormy nature. Never had she seen the great head bowed or the shoulders stooped in timidity. Katherine had Cronk's hand in hers, and she gently drew him forward. "Come, come!" she breathed softly. "I'm afraid," Lon whined again. "I want to stay here, Midge."
Turning the subject abruptly, he continued: "I'm expecting you to work very hard in school, Fledra. You will, won't you?" "Yes," replied Flea, making sure to pronounce the word carefully. Horace smiled so tenderly into her eyes that she grew frightened at the thumping of her heart and fled precipitately. Fledra Cronk's school days lengthened slowly into weeks.
She remembered distinctly that at one time she had loved the chirp of the cricket, the mournful croak of the marsh frogs; but tonight they maddened her, filled her with an ominous fear such as she had never before felt. When Lon saved her from drowning, and had scathed Lem for his actions, she had hoped oh, how she had hoped! that he would let her fill Granny Cronk's place.
At last he did lift his head, and Fledra's solemn gray eyes, fixed gravely upon him, made the squatter ill at ease. "What ye lookin' at?" he growled. "Keep your eyes to hum, and quit a staring at me!" Fledra shrank back. "And I hate ye in them glad rags!" Lon thundered out. "Jerk 'em off, and put on some of them togs of Granny Cronk's! Yer a squatter, and ye'd better dress and talk like one!
The Colonel related his experiences of the morning. The private detective perspired freely. He realized how near his employer had been to death, and all through him. All efforts to explain his unhappy mistake met with curt interruptions from the Colonel. "Now," said that worthy, in conclusion, "I want you to find out if Braddock has returned to Cronk's place.
He did not wait to see Ann comply; but turned to Fledra, who, still wrapped in unconsciousness, lay crouched on the floor, her dark curls massed in confusion. Granny Cronk's blouse had fallen away, leaving the rounded shoulders bare and gleaming in the faint yellow light. The father gathered the daughter into his arms with passionate tenderness.
If Everett had noted the crafty expression on the squatter's face as the latter walked down the street, he would not have been so satisfied over his deal with Lon. After he was alone, he reread Cronk's letter. Later he wrote steadily for sometime. His communication also was for Fledra, and he intended by hook or crook to get it to her with the other.
Saying this, she crouched low between Crabbe and Brimbecomb, and, encircling each neck with an arm, thrust her face down close between them. Lon Cronk's old clock on the shelf ticked out the minutes into the somberness of the hut. The waves of the lake, breaking ceaselessly upon the shore, softened the harsh, uneven croaks of the marsh-frogs with their harmony.
"But I couldn't," proceeded the governor, "and the man was taken away to prison without one glance at the woman who was praying to see him. For she loved him more than he did her." "That's a lie!" burst from Cronk's dry puckered lips. "I repeat, she loved him well," insisted Vandecar; "for every breath she took was one of love for him."
Her face expressed such commanding hauteur, she looked so like Floyd Vandecar when she threw up her head defiantly, that Cronk's big chest heaved with satisfaction. To take his grudge out upon her would be enough. He would cause her to suffer even more than had Midge. He waited for a few moments, with his eyes fastened upon her face, before he spoke.
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