There was no cloud now upon the paternal brow. But Eli Strobe affected doubt or ignorance. “No countin’ on gals; no way ter find ’em out. They will ter-day, an’ they won’t ter-morrer, like the wind blows. Yes, sir.” He rose ponderously from his chair. “Waal, Teck,” he continued, “I be powerful sorry ye won’t bide along o’ we-uns ter-night. I never done ye this-a-way, whenst I war on the mounting.” For Jepson had declined his hospitality, and had expected to ride up the mountain before dark. He hesitated now, and glanced toward the gray little cabin, with its background of a roseate sky and an amethystine mountain. A flutter among the vines,—a flitting blue dress, was it? How the grudging distance denied him! “Ax me agin!” he exclaimed, letting his hand fall heavily on his host’s arm. And so they strolled toward the cabin together. Clement Sanders, moodily loitering along the river bank, followed them with anxious eyes. “All them cussed critters a-waitin’ on Marcelly! She’ll take a notion ter some o’ ’em, whilst I’m bein’ lured by Satan. I reckon I ain’t been doin’ right; them kyerds hed a snare in ’em surely. I never won nuthin’ sca’cely, nohow, an’ it’ll go powerful hard with me ter lose Marcelly at sech a game.” Everything spoke of approaching night. The long, low nocturnal susurrus of the woods was already on the air. A bat came noiselessly flitting past. The color was fading out of the west. A whip-poor-will plained in the dense foliage hard by. A wind, willful wanderer, had sprung up somewhere, and was abroad in the slopes. The forge fire had not been kindled that day, and the ashes were gray on the hearth. He went within, despite some secret perturbation, and with the care characteristic of a good workman saw that his tools were in place; he closed the doors, fastened the shutters, and betook himself homeward. He paused when he had nearly reached home and looked back. How lonely was the dark little shanty, with the looming mountain beetling above,—how far from any other building! Anything might happen there.