“Listen to me, Jeff,” Pole said, gently. “I'm not goin' to threaten any more. Believe me or not, _but listen_. You remember when Thad Pelham went off to Mexico a year or so ago?” Wade made no reply, but there was a look of groping comprehension in his great, blearing eyes. “I see you remember that,” Pole went on. “Well, you know, too, that he was goin' with Minnie a lot about that time--takin' her buggy-ridin' an' to meet-in'. He was a devil in pants, Jeff--his whole family was bad. The men in it would refuse the last call to go in at the gate o' heaven ef a designin' woman was winkin' at 'em on the outside. Well, Thad started fer Mexico one day, an' at the same time Minnie went on a visit to yore brother Joe in Calhoun.” “She went thar a year ago,” Wade put in, “fer I bought 'er ticket myself at Darley.” “She told _you_ she went to Calhoun.” Pole's eyes were mercifully averted. “Jeff, I met her an' Thad down in Atlanta.” Wade caught his breath. He shook from head to foot as with a chill. “You say--Pole, you say--” “Yes, I met 'em comin' out o' the Globe Hotel--that little resort jest off'n Decatur Street. They was comin' out o' the side-door, an' me an' them met face to face. Minnie, she turned as white as a sheet, but Thad sorter laughed like it was a good joke, an' winked at me. I bowed to 'em an' passed on, but I seed 'em lookin' back, an' then they motioned to me to stop, an' they come to me. Minnie set in to cryin' an' begun tellin' me not to take the news back home--that her an' Thad loved each other so much she jest _had_ to play the trick on you an' go as fur as Atlanta with 'im. She said he was comin' back after he got located, an' that they was goin' to git decently married an' so on. An' that devilish Thad smiled an' sorter pulled his cheek down from his left eye an' said, 'Yes, Pole, we are a-goin' to git married. That is, when the proper times comes.'” A sigh escaped Jeff Wade's tense lips. “Are you plumb shore the two done wrong down thar, Baker?” he asked. Pole pulled his mustache and looked at the ground. A smile dawned and died on his face.