At this Greeley had a distinct sensation of pain in the region known as the pit of his stomach. That Smith Crothers should fall under any law had never been dreamed of by mortal man or woman in Greeley's presence before. The right of free whiskey was one thing; the right of a man to utilize the children of the district was another! "He ain't my Smith Crothers!" Greeley inanely returned, feeling in a dazed way that he did not want to put in any claim for Crothers with those apparently innocent eyes upon him. "Well, I'll try to buy the Trouble Neck place from Smith Crothers at once. You see I've been very sick; they said I'd lost my health, but I know I've only misplaced it." Again the cheerful laugh set Greeley's nerves tingling. "They-all say that when they-all come up here." Greeley felt in honour bound to give the young woman a hint as to his reading of her and her mission. "It's a good spot, then, for weak lungs?" "None better," Tod nodded sagely, "but they don't last long." "What? The weak lungs? That's splendid! And now would you mind giving my horse a drink? Isn't it funny what nice horses they manage to evolve in the South on food that would end a cart-horse's existence up North? But such vehicles! Do look at this buggy! And no springs to mention. My! but my back will ache to-morrow." By this time Greeley had procured a pail of water and was courteously holding it to the nose of the very grateful horse. "I wonder," Miss Lowe casually remarked, as she let the reins fall in lap and looked about, "if you happen to have known a Theodore Starr who once lived here?" "I've heard of him," Tod returned; "I ain't a Hollow man. I only came here on business six years ago, but the memory of Starr sort of clings like it was a good thing to keep alive." "How beautifully you put it!" Greeley was thinking how well the government had stocked this dangerous spy with facts, and so he did not observe the tears in her eyes. "There was a little church he built himself--is it still standing? You may not have heard, but he had a very simple little religion quite his own. He thought the people up here were more in need of help than foreign folks, but no regular sect would--would handle him. So he came up a road he used to call The Appointed Way and just settled down and learned to love all--the people and the work!" Greeley was so utterly amazed that the hands which held the pail shook with excitement. "That road what you came up is called The Way--short for Appointed Way. Yon is the little church." Marcia Lowe raised up and through the thicket behind her she saw the deserted structure, which still bore the outlines of a church. "Why, it's all boarded up!" she exclaimed. "Who owns it now?" The exacting nature of the stranger's questions was unsettling to Greeley. She seemed determined to tag and classify all the real estate in the county.