The shade at the broad window behind Sandy had not been lowered, and a very magnificent black night riddled with stars stood like a shield against which the boyish form and pale face rested. There was a crumbling fire on the hearth, and the lamp on the table was turned low. Markham, listening to the slow, earnest voice, became hypnotized by its quality and pure purpose. He felt the dreariness and hopelessness of the hard childhood, and the hate that Mary Morley had aroused seemed to the listener to be the first vivifying happening. He never took his eyes from Sandy's face from first to last. The years of labour, self-sacrifice and fixed purpose stirred him strangely, and the touch of spirit introduced into the boy's voice when he approached the end found an echo in Markham's heart. "I'm going to learn and then go back and help them-all who can't help themselves," Sandy explained, "for _I_ know, sir. No one what does not know, could ever do it! Us-all fears strangers. I'm going to get them-all safe some day, sir. I'm going to have a right, big place to gather them in and teach them. No Hertford curse is going to kill what has called me!" So abstracted had Levi been, so distant in thought from the Bretherton study, and his own inward trouble, that this name, falling from Sandy's lips, shocked him beyond measure. "What--did--you--say?" he gasped; "what name did you say?" "Hertford, sir." "What do you know of the Hertfords?" It was all Markham could do to hold his emotions in abeyance. Sandy told his father's story, all but that which related to the Waldens, and the listener hung on every word. "And so, sir, don't you see, I must be what they-all, my kith and kin, couldn't be? I've got to use my chance for them as well as for me." "It's a big proposition, boy!" Levi relaxed. "Yes, sir." The young face was tired and worn. "Well, then, listen"--a strange light shone in Markham's eyes--"if you prove yourself able to tackle this job, by God, I'll back you! You and I will redeem that old Hollow of yours--you with my money! We'll get Smith Crothers by the throat and throttle him; we'll clean up the Speak Easies and cut more windows in the cabins. Where did you get the notion, son, that with more light and air there would be less damnation?" "I've lived in the cabins, sir." "Well, we'll cut all the windows you want and have the school and"--Markham was quivering--"we'll see if the Morleys can't rise up in the land of their fathers and stamp the Hertfords under foot!" "Yes, sir!" And then Sandy gave one of his rare, rich laughs. From that day the preparations began. A school in the mountains of New Hampshire was selected, and Sandy fitted out with everything necessary and proper.