The overseer looked up: "Miss Alice--I'm an ole man an' we ole men all dream dreams when night comes. Moods come over us and, look where we will, it all leads back to the sweet paths of the past. To-day--all day--my mind has been on"--he stopped, afraid to pronounce the word and hunting around in the scanty lexicon of his mind for some phrase of speech, some word even that might not awaken in Alice Westmore memories of the past. Richard Travis had an intuition of things as naturally as an eagle has the homing instinct, however high in air and beyond all earth's boundaries he flies. In this instance Mrs. Westmore also had it, for she looked up quickly at the man beside her. All the other emotions had vanished from his face save the one appealing look which said: "Come, let us go--we have heard enough." Then they slipped back into the house. Alice Westmore had stopped, smiling back from the doorway. "On what, Bishop?" she finally asked. He shook his head. "Jus' the dream of an ole man," he said. "Don't bother about us two ole men. I'll be 'long presently." "Bisco," said the old preacher after a while, "come mighty nigh makin' a break then--but I've been thinkin' of Cap'n Tom all day. I can't throw it off." Bisco shook his head solemnly. "So have I--so have I. The older I gits, the mo' I miss Marse Tom." "I don't like the way things are goin'--in yonder"--and the preacher nodded his head toward the house. Uncle Bisco looked cautiously around to see that no one was near: "He's doin' his bes'--the only thing is whether she can forgit Marse Tom." "Bisco, it ain't human nature for her to stan' up agin all that's brought to bear on her. Cap'n Tom is dead. Love is only human at las', an' like all else that's human it mus' fade away if it ain't fed. It's been ten years an' mo'--sence--Cap'n Tom's light went out." "The last day of November--'64--" said Uncle Bisco, "I was thar an' seed it. It was at the Franklin fight." "An' Dick Travis has loved her from his youth," went on the overseer, "an' he loves her now, an' he's a masterful man." "So is the Devil," whispered Uncle Bisco, "an' didn't he battle with the angels of the Lord an' mighty nigh hurled 'em from the crystal battlements." "Bisco, I know him--I've knowed him from youth. He's a conjurin' man--a man who does things--he'll win her--he'll marry her yet. She'll not love him as she did Cap'n Tom. No--she'll never love again. But life is one thing an' love is another, an' it ain't often they meet in the same person. Youth mus' live even if it don't love, an' the law of nature is the law of life." "I'm afeered so," said the old negro, shaking his head, "I'm afeered it'll be that way--but--I'd ruther see her die to-night."