"And now I wanta to ask, What place did you prepare for my Eve? What spot have you reference to? You didn't mean my `Dump,' did you? Why, Lord, that ain't no place for no lady. ... And now Quintana has went and robbed me of what I'd saved up for Eve. ... Does that go with Thee, O Lord? No, it don't. And it don't go with me, neither. I'm a-goin' to git Quintana. Then I'm a-goin' to git them two minks that robbed my girlie, -- I am! ... Jake Kloon, he done it in cahoots with Earl Leverett; and Quintana set 'em on. And they gotta die, O Lord of Israel, them there Egyptians is about to hop the twig. ... I ain't aimin' to be mean to nobody. I buy hootch of them that runs it. I eat mountain mutton in season and out. I trade with law-breakers, I do. But, Lord, I gotta get my girlie outa here; and Harrod he walled me in with the chariots and spears of Egypt, till I nigh went wild. ... And now comes Quintana, and here I be a-lyin' out to get him so's my girlie can become a lady, same's them fine folks with all their butlers and automobiles and what-not----" A far crash in the forest stilled his twitching lips and stiffened every iron muscle. As he lifted his rifle, Sid Hone came into the glade. "Yahoo! Yahoo!" he called. "Where be you, Mike?" Clinch slowly rose, grasping his rifle, his small, grey eyes ablaze. "Where's Quintana?" he demanded. "H'ain't you seen nobody?" "No." In the intense silence other sounds broke sharply in the sunset forest; Harvey Chase's halloo rang out from the rocks above; Blommers and the Hastings boys came slouching through the ferns. Byron Hastings greeted Clinch with upflung gun: "Me and Jim heard a shot away out on Drowned Valley," he announced. "Was you out that way, Mike." "No." One by one the men who had driven Star Peak lounged up in the red sunset light, gathering around Clinch and wiping the sweat from sun-reddened faces. "Someone's in Drowned Valley," repeated Byron. "Them minks slid off'n Star in a hurry, I reckon, judgin' how they left their shanty. Phew! It stunk! They had French hootch, too." "Mebby Leverett and Kloon told 'em we was fixin' to visit them," suggested Blommers. "They didn't know," said Clinch. "Where's Hal Smith?" inquired Hone. Clinch made no reply. Blommers silently gnawed a new quid from the remains of a sticky plug. "Well," inquired Jim Hastings finally, "do we quit, Mike, or do we still-hunt in Drowned Valley?" "Not me, at night," remarked Blommers drily. "Not amongst them sink-holes," added Hone. Suddenly Clinch turned and stared at him. Then the deadly light from his little eyes shone on the others one by one. "Boys," he said, "I gotta get Quintana. I can't never sleep another wink till I get that man. Come on. Act up like gents all. Let's go." Nobody stirred. "Come on," repeated Clinch softly. But his lips shrank back, twitching. As they looked at him they saw his teeth.