The bed of the toy railroad had forged its way, like the path of some monstrous serpent, to a point easily within three miles of Devil's Gate. The geared locomotive had been put into service, and the laying of light steel rails was progressing rapidly. Already the sawmill and logging machinery had been unloaded from the new siding that the C. C. & O. had put in for the Unaka Lumber Company. The aged couple found the company's general manager talking with his foreman under a great yellow poplar that was to be cut to make way for the road's bed. Wolfe dismissed Weaver, and turned to shake hands very cordially with his visitors. "What about the trial o' pore Alex, my son?" Grandpap Singleton asked forthwith. [Illustration] Wolfe had been expecting inquiry of this nature. He had his answer cut and dried, as the saying is. "Alex will be back pretty soon--" and Old Buck the eavesdropper clenched his fists--"according to what Tot says about it. The trial was postponed, and now they'll have to bring Cat-Eye from jail to testify. Alex will stick to a straight story, and claim self-defence. Mayfield will be the only witness the State will have, and we think Alex will be cleared altogether. "I hope the devil gits Cat-Eye Mayfield afore night!" cried Granny Wolfe. "The rawzum-chawin' pup--his durned eyes allus 'minded me of a spread-head snake's in dawg days!" "And how's Tot a-comin' along in town?" asked Grandpap Singleton. "She's doing remarkably well under Mrs. Mason's teaching," Wolfe told them. "You'd hardly know her, already! She's studying grammar almost day and night, and she wears her clothes like a lady." "And when," inquired the garrulous grandmother, "is you and her a-goin' to marry, Little Buck?" Wolfe gave the old woman an odd look. "Never, perhaps." "Well, now, that 'ar beats the Old Scratch." Granny Wolfe's face was troubled. "Shorely, honey, you hain't never axed her!" Old Buck pressed forward a little in the concealing laurel that he might not fail to catch the rest of it. "No," said his son, "I haven't asked her. And I probably won't, because she wouldn't accept me if I did. I learned that much, anyway!" Old Buck clicked his teeth. "Well, I'll be damned!" he muttered into his beard. XI It was the first of October, which in the mountains means clear and frosty nights and days like rare old wine. The pointed shadow of bald Picketts Dome was reaching for the jagged summit of the Big Blackfern; it was, therefore, almost four o'clock. Granny Wolfe sat huddled low in the doorway on the sunny side of her old cabin; she was trying hard for a nap. Her little black dog Wag lay at her feet, now and then snapping at a bothersome fly.