"But that fire feels real nice," he finished; "real nice and comfortin', somehow. And maybe I could stop just a minute." The old hungry light of curiosity was kindling again, brighter than ever before, in the beady little eyes. "As you was remarkin', back a stretch, you'd been a-waitin' for me to come along. Was they--was they something you wanted to see me about?" CHAPTER X The perplexed frown still furrowed Young Denny's forehead. He felt that the fire had wrought a most remarkably swift cure of all that he had feared, but the anxiety faded from his eyes. White head perked forward, balanced a little on one side, birdlike, Old Jerry was waiting for him to pick up the thread which had been broken so long. And now it was the big-shouldered boy who faltered in his words, uncertain just how to begin. "I--I don't know just how to ask you," he started heavily. "I'm--I am going away. I'm figuring on being gone quite a while, I think. First, just after I had decided to go, some time last night, I made up my mind to ask you to take care of the stock till I came back. I thought maybe it wouldn't be too hard for you--with you coming by at night, anyhow. There's just the one cow and the team, and the hens to feed. And then I--I got to thinkin' that maybe, too, you'd be able to do something else for me, if I sort of explained how things were. There--there wasn't anyone else I could think of who'd be likely to want to do me a favor." He paused and licked his lips. And Old Jerry, too, furtively touched his with the tip of his tongue. He was waiting breathlessly, but he managed to nod his head a little, encouragingly, as he leaned closer. "And that was what I was really waiting for," the slow voice went on ponderously. "I saw this morning--anybody could have seen--what the Judge meant them all to believe along the street when we drove through. Somehow things have changed in the last twelve hours. I sort of look at some things differently than I did, and so it was funny, just funny to watch him, and I'm not so blind that I don't know what his story will be tonight down at the Tavern. Not that I care what they say, either. But there is some one who couldn't help believin' it--couldn't believe anything else--after what happened last night." He stopped, groping for words to finish. "And so I--I waited for you to come," he went on lamely. "I took you outside and showed you how it really happened, so that--so that you could tell _her_--the truth."