"Get out of my way!" she said sharply. "You let me alone. I've got a right to get my wood hauled if I can." "Well, you don't do it any more," said Maudlin. "If you're too lazy to carry your own wood, I'll help you myself.... You can't go no more to King's in _his_ car." Jinnie turned a pair of glinting blue eyes upon him. "Who said I couldn't?" she demanded. "Uncle Lafe lets me." "Your Uncle Lafe said you could marry me," said Maudlin in slow, drawling tones. Jinnie's blood boiled up behind her ears. She was eyeing him in bewilderment. Maudlin's words made her more angry than she'd ever been in her life. "You lie, you damn fool!" she cried, and then caught her breath in consternation. It was the first oath that had escaped her lips in many a long day, and she felt truly sorry for it. She would tell Lafe of the provocation that caused it and beg to be forgiven. She moved back a step as Maudlin pinched her. "I don't lie," he growled. "You think because you can scrape on a fiddle you're better'n other folks. Pa an' me'll show you you ain't." "You and your pa don't know everything," answered Jinnie, wrathfully. "We know 'nough to see what King's doin' all right." He made a dive at the girl and laid a rough hand on the shortwood strap. "Here! Gimme that wood if you're too lazy to carry it." Jinnie turned her eyes up the road. It was time Bennett came. The sound of his motor would be like sweet music in her ears. She jerked the strap away from the man and turned furiously upon him. "Don't touch me again, Maudlin Bates.... I don't interfere with you. I'll--I'll----" But Maudlin paid no heed to her insistence. He was dragging the strap from her shoulders. Jinnie's face grew waxen white, but she held her own for a few minutes. Maudlin was big in proportion to her slenderness, and in another instant her shortwood lay on the ground, and she was standing panting before him. "Now, then, just to show what kind of a feller I be," said he, "I'm goin' to kiss you." Jinnie felt cold chills running up and down her back. "It's time you was kissed," went on Maudlin, "and after to-day I'm goin' to be your man.... You can bet on that." He was slowly forcing her backward along the narrow path that led into the marshes. Jinnie knew intuitively he wanted her to turn and run into the underbrush that he might have her alone in the great waste place. Like a mad creature, she fought every step of the way, Maudlin's anger rising at each cry the girl emitted. "I'll tell my uncle," she screamed, with sobbing breath. "You won't want to tell 'im when I get done with you," muttered the man. "Why don't you run? You c'n run, can't you?" Oh, if Bennett would only come! She was still near enough to Paradise Road for him to hear her calling. Maudlin reached out his hand and caught the long curls between his dirty fingers. "If you won't run," he said, "then, that for you!" and he gave a cruel twist to the shining hair, pulling Jinnie almost off her feet.