"Come home!" he said; "come home and bring your money with you. It will buy peace and pardon--them's better than any fool idees. And just remember this, Sandy Morley, we-all may be dastards and hard drinkers and what not, but we sho' don't desert women and children. They, down there, belong to us, son, and I expect you and me belong to them!" Martin rose hurriedly and dropped the whip in the underbrush. "Come on home, son!" But Sandy did not move. "It's come with me or I go alone, Dad." The child was master of the man! "You mean it? You mean you dare to disobey--me?" "I'm going to--take my chance, Dad, out among--folks!" "You--will--obey--me!" But even as the words were spoken, Martin felt how impotent they were. "It's good-bye, Dad?" It was good-bye. Both man and boy realized it. The night closed them in and the protecting trees sheltered them for a moment more. "You po' little lad! you mean it?" "Yes, Dad. Will you come?" Martin turned one glance to where the light from his cabin door shone; then he groaned and said: "No! God knows they do belong to me and I'm too old, too broken. The curse will get the best of you, boy, and you'll come trailing home. I'll be here--then! But----" And now Martin came closer and held him by the thin, trembling shoulders. "Grandfather never done it! It was one man's word agin another's and the Hertfords have the luck--they allus had. Onct one of them come back"--and here Morley came closer to Sandy--"it was back in ole Miss Ann Walden's early days--he came back and something happened!" The whisper made Sandy creep with chill. "What?" he asked, hoarsely. "He done a mighty wrong to--Miss Ann's little sister, her that was called Queenie and looked it! We-all knew, but we-all stood by Miss Ann, even such as me stood by her! it was the only thing we-all could do for her. He got away! Then that po' chile took to watching from the balcony for him who never come--and then she went away--and by and by--the baby come home!" "The baby?" Sandy trembled and grew faint. He had eaten little and the burden being laid upon him was more than his strength could bear. "Cynthia--the lil' girl with the face of Queenie, her mother?" "No! No!" What he feared and abhorred the boy could not tell, but every instinct in him rose to do battle for the child--friend of his starved and empty life. "It's your part, son, to stand by and never let on! We-all have done it; we-all took what Miss Ann said for gospel truth--and so must you!" Then it was that Sandy laughed! The sound startled and shocked Martin and he almost reeled from before it, but strangely enough it seemed to brighten the heavy darkness. "I don't believe it!" said Sandy between his bursts of laughter. "It's a bad dream--we-all must wake up." "We can't fight them, Sandy!"