"Why," roared the tyrant, bluffly, "ain't the land-owners always made it worth your while to move? It's all business, boys! Don't let fools bust in. We don't want fire here. Get to Little Lobster as quick as the Lord'll let ye. We'll have six months' supply of pork, flour, and plug tobacco there waitin' for ye--all with the land-owners' compliments. We've always believed that the easiest way is the best way, but you don't buy that way by buckin'. Buck, and the trade is all off--and you get thrown into another county. Close your girl's mouth and keep it shut." "There!" grunted old Christopher, "if ye haven't got any more sympathy to waste on critters like that"--a jab of his thumb at young Jed--"you'd better come along." But at sight of woe on the faces of the women, and mute entreaty in the eyes of the girl, Wade still lingered. "She's speakin' for herself," whispered young Jed, hoarsely. "She don't want to leave the woods because your boss, Colin MacLeod, is courtin' her, and she's waitin' to see him, now that he's back from down-country." Riotous laughter "guffled" in the throat of Pulaski Britt as he stared from the scarlet face of the girl to Wade's confusion. "Courtin' her, hey? Another case of it? I say, Rodliff, pretty soon there won't be a whole arm or leg left on my boss if this young man here keeps chasin' him round the country and breaks a bone on him for ev'ry girl the two of 'em get against together." He laughed to the full content of his soul, and then turned on the girl. "Why, you ragged little fool, Colin MacLeod is crazier than a hornet in a thrashin'-machine over Rod Ide's girl. He's up in camp now with an arm in a sling to make him remember a fight he and this young dude here got into over her. And he's up there beyond Pogey Notch sitting on a stump swearing at the choppers and bragging with every other breath that he'll kill the dude and marry the girl--and I don't reckon he's changed his mind in two days since I saw him last." "You lie!" screamed the girl. "Hold on, there, Miss Spitfire," broke in the sheriff, himself highly amused by the humor of the situation as it appeared to him, "there isn't a man between Castonia and Blunder Lake but what is talking about it. A hundred men saw the fight. I reckon five hundred have heard MacLeod ravin' about how much he loves the Ide girl. So if he ever courted you it must have been just for the sake of getting used to the game." Even the fawning male citizens of Misery Gore cackled their little chorus in the laughter that followed the high sheriff's jest. She drew back slowly and gazed on them all, her lips rolled away from her white teeth. Those jeering faces from "outside" represented property, law, the smug self-satisfaction of all who despised Misery Gore's squalid breed.