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"H'm," grunted Yarebrough once more, and scratched his head again. He stepped out of the cave on to the platform that Nature's hand had laid. The brightening light indicated the approach of dawn, though the sun had not yet risen.
Out of the church-yard, side by side, with bowed heads, walked Bud Yarebrough and Friedrich von Rittenheim, the man whose fragile honor had been preserved by Bob's act, and the man whose life he had given his own to save. Carl von Sternburg Mrs. Morgan and the Doctor had insisted upon giving to von Rittenheim Gray Eagle and Bob's buggy.
Bud Yarebrough, going rabbit-hunting, pondered, as he trudged along the road, upon the freaks of an April that had come in with snow, and alternately had warmed and chilled the swelling hopes of bud and blossom, until the end of the month showed trees and shrubs but a trifle farther advanced than at its beginning. "Jus' like M'lissy used to treat me!"
She held out her hand to him. He hesitated a moment, and then took it in a brief clasp. "Good-night," was all she said. Declining Bud's offer of shelter, von Rittenheim bade him farewell, and strode into the darkness of the forest. Yarebrough looked after him, puzzled and disapproving. "He ain' none so glad to see his sister-in-law," he pondered. "Ah wonner what hit all means."
Bud approached, wiping the perspiration from his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Bud, did you know this was here?" Von Rittenheim reached behind him and tapped something that gave forth a sound of earthenware. "Know what was there?" "Come and see." Yarebrough stepped behind the stump, upon whose top the Baron swung around so as to keep his face in view. "Whose jug?" asked Bud. "I know not.
He had to go and get Melissa Yarebrough to come and look after her." "He wasn't expecting her, then?" "Sydney says no. Of course he couldn't ask visitors to that shack of his." "Ah suppose she hadn't any idea he was living that-a-way." "Ah reckon not. She's his brother Maximilian's wife, or widow, rather, for she brought him the news of his brother's death.
When he was greeting his guests at the door of his cabin, Yarebrough picked up the jug and the coin, and disappeared into the woods. Wendell was taking the baroness off her horse, and Bob was performing the same office for Sydney, when Von Rittenheim reached them. "We are come to beg a welcome fr-rom you for a few minutes, dear Friedrich," said Hilda, in English.
"Before you touch that, I want to ask you if you would be willing that your wife should know how you ear-rned that money?" Yarebrough changed his weight uneasily from one foot to the other, and then sat down suddenly, as if his legs were not equal to his support. "Well, Ah wasn' fixin' to tell M'lissy," he acknowledged.
"Ah'll make you-all sorry you ever married Bud Yarebrough," the man responded, and Sydney turned the corner just in time to see him seize Melissa by the waist and lean over to kiss her. The girl took advantage of the loosening of his hold as he caught sight of Miss Carroll, and delivered him a resounding slap upon his cheek, when she turned panting to her opportune visitor.
A little sigh escaped her as she looked about for the Doctor, and then resigned herself to be lifted down by Bob's strong and eager, though shaking, hands. To him her manner was quite the reverse of her attitude towards the other victim of a weak will from whom she just had parted. If to Yarebrough she was straightforward, to this man she was diplomatic.